


Soothe Away Old Sorrows

by randomquixen



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: AU so seriously an AU, Abuse, Angst, BAMF!Stiles, Break Up, Cuddling, Derek is stupid, F/M, Happy Ending, Hunters, M/M, Omegas, Plot, Possessive Derek Hale, Protective Derek Hale, Protective Stiles, Werewolf Stiles Stilinski, but you get to hate her so yay!, one OC, soother!stiles, stiles is not being stupid, the gang is all werewolves, two packs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-28
Updated: 2013-12-18
Packaged: 2018-01-02 20:21:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 52,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1061207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomquixen/pseuds/randomquixen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek is grumpy and wears a perpetual scowl, but he has his reasons. Stiles talks too much, flails, is generally annoying, and will not leave Derek alone.<br/>For whatever reason Derek is oddly soothed by him. It's annoying. </p><p>There is love and angst, break-ups, misunderstandings, confusion, flailing, omegas, violence, and a happy ending.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!  
> BTW every time I post a new chapter it seems to forget that I already decided on ten chapters and it keeps going back to ?. I apologize and I always try to fix it after I post, but if I forget, or it malfunctions, there is a total of ten chapters!

Sunlight streamed in through the spaces between each thin, plastic slide that made up the crappy blinds which hung in front of his window. Derek growled at the sun as it filtered down on him and he buried his head under his arm to escape it. 

After several minutes of juvenilely avoiding the day, Derek groaned and swung himself out of bed. He scuffed his feet across the floor as he made his way to the bathroom and scrubbed his hands over his face, trying to rub away the sleep still lingering in his eyes. 

When someone knocked on his door several minutes later, Derek growled again, low and deep, trying to mentally convince the idiot on the other side of the door to go away. 

So what if Derek wasn't a morning person? He was a creature of the night, a werewolf, it made sense. 

The knocking continued and Derek eventually grumbled his way to the door to answer it and tell whoever was knocking where they could shove it.  
He opened the door to see a very alert and very cheerful Steven standing in the hall, decked out in an overly large football jersey with a backwards baseball cap on his head. 

“Hey man!” shouted Steven, utterly oblivious to the hellish image of claws digging into his eyes as Derek fantasized about killing his annoying neighbor. Steven stuck his head in the dorm room, checking out the single bed and private bathroom Derek had wrangled because he was unwilling to share a room with anyone, solely because it was likely he would kill them within a day. 

“So dude,” Steven said, turning back to Derek, not registering Derek’s foul mode and permanent scowl because that was Derek’s perpetual state and it only ever oscillated between that and Derek baring his teeth and growling. Growling was a skill that Steven chose to look at as impressive and useful rather than actually scary. “There is this massive party going down at the fraternity, sort of an End of Days party, marking the beginning of the new semester.” Steven enthused, already pumped to get yet another excuse to get wasted. “We’re going.”

Steven’s statement was anything but a question, yet Derek continued to scowl and glare because he couldn’t understand why Steven had latched onto him like he had. Plus, there was no way in hell he was going to be dragged off to another party. 

Oblivious as he was, Steven did seem to get that Derek didn’t want to go, but he continued to push, “come on, man, didn’t you say you wanted to be a normal guy? You wanted to do normal college things. This is a normal college thing, man, you got to participate.” 

Derek glared and scowled some more and deeply regretted having ever mentioned to Steven that he wanted to be a normal human guy, but he had been drunk at the time so it wasn’t really his fault, and he hadn’t thought Steven would even remember it the next day, let alone bring it up every opportunity he got. 

Unfortunately, what Steven said was true, Derek had wanted to be a normal human guy, doing normal college things. He still did. Derek had given up his wolf in an attempt to be normal and escape the oppressive feeling of loss that gripped him every time the wolf inside of him got the slightest bit of control. As a human he could ignore it most times, choosing instead to focus on other things like how obnoxious all the people were at this school, how flippant they were with they lives, and how little any of them actually mattered. 

Derek continued to glare at Steven for another moment before his expression softened even the slightest bit. At least Steven was making an effort to get Derek into the world, no matter how horrible a person Derek was, or how many times he had left Steven places, not bothering to say goodbye, abandoning someone who was possibly supposed to be his friend.

So several hours later Derek found himself standing in the trashed backyard of one of the fraternities, holding a cup of beer, and standing uncomfortably as Steven continued to introduce him to countless people he didn’t like and didn’t care about. 

He stood awkwardly holding the beer in one hand, not drinking it because it tasted like washer fluid and wouldn’t do anything for him anyway, and pretended to pay attention to the introductions being made to him. He didn’t fit in here and he knew it. So why was he pretending to be a party boy when all he wanted to do was smash something? It was bad enough he could smell every disgusting human in the room, the scent of beer and lust permeating everything, he just wanted to throw his cup, sprint to the fence, leap over it, and maybe just keep running until his legs gave out. 

“And this is Stiles.” said Steven, who continued bringing people over to say hi, no matter how obviously Derek didn’t care. 

“Nice to meet you,” Derek said, looking up, expecting some rebel against the cause, or a hipster sporting a vest or a Salvation Army sweater.

“Nice to meet you too,” the guy said, looking up at him with large brown eyes that seemed to glow with a molten light. His brown hair was buzzed short and moles dotted his face and extended down to his neck just below his ear.

Derek blinked rapidly trying to take him in, something about the look of him was so different, he was full of moment even as he stood still, holding his nearly empty cup aloft. Derek lifted his nose just slightly to take a whiff of his scent. He smelled of coffee and spilled beer and a tinge of sweat, but underneath that he smelled like fresh bread and spice, with a feather light scent of dogs, like he had been playing with one recently. 

He always had a soft spot for dog lovers. 

He sniffed again, and caught another scent that worried him, “Are you on drugs?” he asked suddenly, and he knew from his tone it came off judgmental.

“No?” Stiles said, but making it a question in his confusion and looking to Steven standing next him.

“You smell off,” He explained, checking Stiles up and down like the drugs would just jump off him. 

Stiles face went very red, but he seemed more confused than insulted. “It’s Adderall?” he asked, unsure if that was what Derek was referring to. “I have ADD.” He shrugged.

“Oh,” now it was Derek’s turn to get red, but he couldn’t back down. “Shouldn’t you avoid drinking then?” he asked eyeing Stiles’ cup with contempt.

Steven, for his part, was looking very embarrassed for Derek, and starting spewing out random words, trying to change the subject.

“It’s not alcohol, its root beer,” Stiles explained, hefting his cup, “do I pass inspection?” 

Derek struggled for words, trying to apologize for something that was clearly not his business in the first place. He tried to explain away his mistake. “I have an overly sensitive nose.” he blurted, and cursed himself for not having more social finesse. “I…” he broke off, not sure what he wanted to say next. He almost wanted to ask about the dog, but explaining that he could smell that too might not go over well. He almost wished he could just blurt he was a werewolf to explain, but he knew what that would get him. Besides, he was trying to give up that part of himself. 

“It’s okay.” Stiles said, crinkling his nose, something Derek did not find adorable. “Are you planning on majoring in Criminal Justice because you would make a great drug hound with a nose like that. “

Derek blanched for a moment, trying to figure out if he knew what he was; if he knew he was a wolf. It was rare people made dog jokes to him if they didn’t know. Though often, if they made a joke like that, they received a rough enough response that they didn’t again. 

Stiles laughed at his confused face as Derek tried to figure out if Stiles smelled of wolf at all. 

He didn’t. 

“Stiles!” someone called from behind them.

Stiles turned to see who was calling him and when he spotted the gushing, drunk girl, he smiled widely and excused himself. 

“Smooth move.” Steven said when he was gone.

Derek scowled again, still slightly embarrassed, but refused to let Steven continue to see his discomfort. 

He glanced over at Stiles who was holding up the giggling girl. Derek turned away quickly.

“I should leave.” Derek growled, and without waiting for Steven’s response, he left the party and went back to his dorm. He collapsed on the bed and started reading an old book to distract himself from his embarrassing foray into the human world. It was becoming increasingly clear that he was too wolf to be a normal human and in too much human pain to be a wolf. He didn’t know why he bothered. 

XXXX  
“Hi,” said someone, plopping down in the empty seat next to him. 

He glared at the thin male form sitting beside him, annoyed that someone had broken his well-maintained rule that no one sit within two seats of him, even in the packed lectures. His glares and not so subtle growls scared off even the bravest of football players who tried to take seats next to him. Though women were also frequently trying to sit next to him, if they weren’t scared off by his look of death, they eventually grew bored of his cold shoulder and would leave.

The glare and the general look of flagrant disregard did nothing to stop this guy from continuing to chatter at him as the professor walked in and started preparing for his lecture. Eventually Derek grew exasperated and looked full force glare into the eyes of the chattering boy next to him. 

He stared into Stiles' whiskey colored eyes as Stiles barely slowed down in whatever he was saying to him. 

“…and I figured it made sense because he was majoring in philosophy, though I have no idea what he plans to do with that if he doesn’t go into teaching.”  
Derek blinked once, and then grunted in the affirmative to whatever he was saying, but that seemed to be enough for him because he launched into another story before pausing to ask him, “What are you majoring in?”

“Economics.” He grunted, responding in real words for the first time in ten minutes. 

“Do you like math?” he asked, seeming genuine.

“Decent enough.” he mumbled, not sure how to talk about himself. He sucked at talking to begin with, but he was utter crap at talking about himself. 

“Good,” he said, with a cheerful smile, “you can help me if I get lost.” And with that he turned to the economics lecture that was just starting in front of them, not waiting for a response from Derek as he apparently didn’t expect one. 

Good, he was learning. 

XXXX  
After the first day, Stiles made a habit of sitting next to him in class. He would talk endlessly for about the first ten minutes, and then remain utterly silent for the entirety of the lecture. He appeared to be greatly devoted to getting a good grade in the class and seemed to actually care about the material. 

He also never bothered Derek’s learning, which was surely the only reason Derek continued to let him sit there, despite his annoying tendencies to talk. He was sure it had nothing to do with the fact that he liked to hear someone talk animatedly, just like his mother had always done. Or that he liked how he waved his arms around while telling a story and would occasionally bump his arm or his shoulder, sending a spark of electricity through him. And he was sure it had nothing to do with the fact that he missed having people around who seemed to genuinely like him. As a friend.

For some reason, he started looking forward to his economics classes, but he wrote it off as him enjoying the subject, which was good, because it was his major. He was sure it had nothing to do with the animated boy who would always sit next to him and say stupid things to him, and sometimes touch his arm, and laugh at his own jokes. 

After three weeks, Derek was really starting to feel comfortable with Stiles, getting used to his chatter, and using the boy as a sensory white noise to relax into the classroom. He would focus on Stiles’ talking and breathing, listening to the uneven heartbeat, and taking in the calming scent of spice and fresh bread. 

Derek sat in his usual seat, waiting for Stiles to arrive to begin his onslaught of words. He heard the heartbeat so unique to Stiles and waited for him to come over. 

He didn’t.

Stiles went over and sat with another group of people, one made largely of girls, and Derek felt something akin to disappointment grip at his chest. He resolutely ignored it, pretending it wasn’t happening, that he wasn’t that attached to a certain boy who talked too much. But Derek was angry that Stiles wasn’t here, that he was devoting his attention to the beautiful women who surrounded him.

It wasn’t jealously.

It wasn’t.

At the end of class, Derek bolted out of his seat, hoping to catch Stiles on the way out. He had no idea what he was planning to say.

“Stiles.” Derek called out, catching Stiles attention. Stiles looked over in confusion before finally spotting him. He turned back to his friends and said his goodbyes before heading over. 

“Why didn’t you sit with me?” Derek asked, his blunt questioning revealing far more than he wanted to. He pretended he did it on purpose and refused to feel embarrassed by his behavior. He was a werewolf and he refused to be made into an idiot by a stupid kid. 

There was absolutely no reason for this.

“Oh! Ah…?” Stiles was clearly confused by his abruptness. He glanced back at the disappearing women and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck while pursing his lips. “There was this thing…. Carolyn…” Stiles floundered and frowned, unable to come out with words, but seeming to try and make up for it with sporadic hand movements. 

Stiles seemed to deflate, his whole body hunching in, and Derek suddenly wanted to wrap his arms around Stiles chest, press his nose into Stiles’ neck and breathe in his spice and fresh bread scent, both to calm himself and offer comfort to Stiles.

Derek pushed back the urge and waited for Stiles to speak. Stiles was giving him a weird look and he wondered if he had been staring at his neck just a little too long. 

“My friend Carolyn went through a break-up yesterday. I was over there for moral support.” He explained. He gave Derek a funny look as if trying to solve a puzzle.

“I’ll come back next week?” he said, making it a question, like he was waiting for Derek to tell him to stay away.

Derek’s eyebrows knitted together as he wondered why Stiles thought Derek didn’t want him there. 

Stupid question. 

Derek kind of didn’t actually talk to Stiles. He could maybe see why he got the impression. 

“Okay.” He said instead and just walked away. He was pretty positive that Stiles would be there next week. 

 

At the beginning of class on Monday, Stiles sat next to him again, not even blinking nor mentioning his missing days, but he sent a smile to the group of girls and turned to start the new story he had decided to tell Derek.

If Stiles saw the look of derision Derek sent the group of girls, neither of them spoke of it. 

XXXX  
After that, he stopped letting Stiles’ words wash over him and had starting listening. At some point after that, he had started responding in small one word answers to his questions. He was even starting to warm up to two or three word responses. On occasion, he didn’t even scowl. 

Stiles sat next to him in nearly every lecture, which were twice a week, with three months left before finals. Derek wasn’t sure what would happen at the end of the semester, but he chose not to think about why it ending bothered him so much. 

Stiles had just started yet another story about the strange girl who lived at the end of his hall and walked around in a superhero outfit all the time for no better reason than she felt like it, though she apparently didn’t even like superheroes. He was flailing his arms, trying to express his annoyance at how un-understandably strange Strange Girl’s behavior was, when one of his sleeves slipped down his arm, revealing a series of bruises that looked suspicious enough to match the shape of someone’s hand. 

“What happened?” Derek asked, suddenly angry and defensive of Stiles. 

Stiles looked confused for a moment, trying to understand Derek’s distress as Derek clenched his jaw and indicated the bruises on Stiles’ arm. 

“Oh!” he smiled, realizing what Derek meant, and waved his arm like it was nothing, “it was just an accident.” But there was something about the shift of his weight and the smell of nerves that had Derek jumping to conclusions. 

“Stiles, is someone hurting you?” he asked, anger returning to him for the first time in quite a while, the glare that so rarely made appearances in their conversations was now back full force.

“No!” he put her hands up, trying to calm him, “God, no.” he laughed slightly, and Derek relaxed a little, but was still on edge.

“Then what?”

Stiles sighed, like he hated having to tell him, and that suddenly made Derek feel… something, an emotion he couldn’t identify, but he knew he didn’t like that Stiles didn’t want to tell him something. 

Derek suddenly wondered if they weren’t as close as he thought they were.

Stiles told him a lot of things about a lot of people, but he had never told Derek anything about himself. He had never even gotten to ask about why he smells just slightly of dogs sometimes. Though, in the end, Derek shouldn’t really complain that Stiles hadn’t shared personal details about his life because Derek had never told him anything about his own. 

Stiles and somehow Steven were his only two friends, but it was becoming very clear he knew nothing about either of them. He hated himself for not even knowing what he was missing, for not realizing how unattached he really was from them. 

He looked Stiles in the eye and asked, “Please tell me.” It was clear and sincere and any doubts Stiles had just disappeared. 

“I’m a second degree black belt.” he blurted, “We were practicing wrist released yesterday, and my partner just grabbed a little too tightly to my arm when I took him down, I think he was trying to keep his balance, and just ended up pulling me down too. It’s my own fault really, I should have had a better stance and kept my balance to stay up.” he started to ramble endlessly, and it became increasingly clear that Stiles didn’t tell people that he studied martial arts because he was embarrassed, but for the life of him, Derek couldn’t figure out why.

Upon hearing all this, about Stiles taking down some guy, and him struggling to stay standing, Derek suddenly felt a wash of pride that Stiles could take care of himself and that he was so strong.

The wolf inside him was extremely pleased.

Derek continued to listen to Stiles start telling him a whole new slew of stories related to his martial arts training and in a brief moment, Derek wondered what else Stiles had never mentioned. 

 

The walk out of class was normally a quiet one. Though Derek had stopped trying to run away from Stiles after the first week, they still rarely said anything as they digested the lecture. 

This time was different. 

Derek had been thinking about the first time he met Stiles and how angry he was and how much he hated to be there. He also remember how embarrassed he was about smelling Adderall and having to apologize profusely after that, telling him that he had an overactive nose and smelled everything. Stiles turned it into a long running joke, but when the Adderall scent was stronger than it should be, he made a point of indicating Derek should ignore it. 

The two or three classes where Stiles didn’t sit next to him were lonely and he had found himself with a far shorter fuse that week.

Somehow he had found a growing fondness for the spastic, talkative boy who sat next to him every lecture. He talked too fast and giggled all the time, and when something made him really laugh, sometimes he couldn’t stop smiling for hours. 

Derek started trying to make him laugh like that all the time; he wanted to be the reason why Stiles was smiling. Something about Stiles smiling made him want to smile too. 

There was something about Stiles in general that made him a happier person, and the more he was around him the more infrequent his angry outbursts became. Stiles leveled him in a way he didn’t think anyone else could.

Which was stupid.

He frowned at the ground, trying to figure out what it was about Stiles the calmed him like it did, and Derek seriously couldn’t figure it out. He had no idea what he was going to do when the semester ended in less than two weeks, but he couldn’t deny he would miss Stiles. 

“We should go out sometime.” Derek blurted, not having thought through the action at all. 

Stiles turned his head to look at him out of the corner of his eye.

“Just as friends,” Derek continued to ramble, having no idea where all of his nerves were coming from, they had been something like friends for a few months. “Just to do something outside of class where we can talk about something more than group assignments.” 

It wasn’t really that they talked about group assignments, but that their conversations were always surface deep, never going in about anything personal until he had seen the bruises. He really did want to spend more time with Stiles, he wanted to find out more about him, maybe understand what it was about him that made Derek feel so calm. 

It wasn’t a date, most definitely. He didn’t even know if Stiles was into guys. Besides, Derek wasn’t ready for thing like that yet. He was still a little too broken.  
“Sure,” replied Stiles, smiling, but Derek whiffed an emotion he couldn’t place, disappointment maybe? But he was sure Stiles wouldn’t be disappointed to spend time with him, Stiles made a point of sitting next to him every day in lecture.

He had so little social awareness that he couldn’t grasp what Stiles was thinking, but the fact he agreed to go out with him at all sent Derek over the moon, and he had the sudden urge to go for a run in his full wolf form. 

Derek almost physically flinched at the thought of being his wolf again. He had made the decision to give it up almost two years ago, why would the urges suddenly be coming back now? Derek was well aware the wolf wasn’t completely gone from him, it never could be, he just made a point of not giving into the urges. Not since a werewolf hunter had attacked his family home and set it on fire, killing every member of Derek’s family, including his parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and countless cousins. 

Derek was left with no one. 

He would never get over losing his family like that. He couldn’t go back to being a wolf and feel the loss of being alone, without a pack, without his family, all over again. 

So the thought of going out for a run as a wolf, all because he was so excited Stiles said yes, and the fact he had seriously considered doing it made him more than a little anxious.

He made plans with Stiles for the next day and went back to his room to study. Finals were only two weeks away.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Date, study, sleep, martial arts, and romps through the woods, all with a healthy dose of sexual tension and mild self cock blocking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stiles' list of stories on the date are actually all my real stories, and I originally modeled my 1st draft character off of my own identity. Not my personality because I am not as nice as the her, but I changed most of it anyway to make way for the awesomeness that is Stiles. I did however leave some stuff, like my martial arts history because I think it's awesome for Stiles to be able to kick some ass. 
> 
> Watch out for pronoun mistakes, overabundance of commas, and some surprising tense mistakes that I don't understand myself but caught in a few places.  
> There are like one or two paragraphs *cough-pages-cough* that are completely unedited, but if there is anything horrifying please point it out so I can fix it. 
> 
> So I changed some stuff because this is very much an AU. Everyone can turn into full wolf form (cause I think it's cooler) and Derek's family didn't die in a fire, but they did die. There will be an eventual fire so Derek can have some of that exact brand of freak out, but Kate doesn't come in until later, so I figured an alternative death sequence should occur for the family.

He showered the second time that day for no better reason than to ensure he didn’t smell disgusting after his run on the gym treadmill.

It wasn’t because he was nervous.

It wasn’t.

He had given in to the urge to run, just not as a wolf, and though it slightly appeased that part of him, he felt his wolf closer to the surface than he would have liked.

Derek stood in front of the mirror for an hour styling his jet black hair; he had already shaved today, even though he normally just let the slightest bit of scruff grow on his cheeks. It always reminded him of the days when he was full werewolf and wouldn’t shave for weeks, growing a short scruffy beard his cousins used to tease him about.

Derek smiled slightly at the memory and for once didn’t feel the urge to throw something.

He pulled on a black t-shirt that was a little tight on his muscular body and a pair of nice jeans. It was beginning to get cold out, so he grabbed a leather jacket and threw that on even though he was naturally warmer even in the coldest weather.

Derek was to meet Stiles at the coffee shop on main campus and sat in one of the chairs by the window until Stiles arrived.

He bought Stiles a coffee even though this was definitely not a date, and they sat across from each other, Stiles doing most of the talking.

“Okay so I’m going to give you a list of story summaries, and then you pick whichever sounds most interesting, and that’s the story I’ll tell.”

Stiles was talking a mile a minute as it became increasingly clear that Derek was not very good at being conversational.

Derek could smell his nervousness and slight confusion from across the table, but he wasn’t sure how to reciprocate with conversation.

“There was the time I was driving illegally and was chased by ambulances, the time my grandmother set six trucks filled with silk on fire, the time I was attacked by two pit bulls, or my first and only car accident.” he listed, looking Derek in the eye as he waited for him to respond.

Derek thought for a solid minute, all the stories sounded really interesting, but if he only got to hear one, he wanted to make sure it was a good one. He picked up his coffee and took a sip keeping eye contact with Stiles.

Derek was glad he had picked coffee as their non-date, it was easy, with no pressure; they could stay for as short or as long as they wanted.

“How about the ambulance chasing you.” he said, deciding, and Stiles started animatedly telling his story.

They sat in the coffee house for over an hour before Stiles stood up to stretch and Derek followed suit thinking it was time to leave.

They walked outside together, side by side, not saying anything. Derek wasn’t sure what to say, and it seemed Stiles was all talked out. He didn’t mind though, Derek felt the silence was comfortable, and just liked spending time with Stiles. It was strangely calming.

“Well, the good thing about going to things like this is that it gives you a baseline for what you are looking for.”  Stiles blurted.

Derek drew his eyebrows together in confusion. “What?” he asked intelligently.

“You know, I talk a lot and am endlessly spastic, which is obviously something you didn’t enjoy, I mean, I could only get you to genuinely smile like four times the entire hour. Then next time when you start looking to do something, you can find someone more your speed; someone who seems to have more of your interests.” Stiles rambled, not looking at Derek.

Derek stared at the sidewalk, taking it all in. Had he really smiled four times the entire hour? The more he thought about it, the more impressive it was, he had probably only genuinely smiled four times the entire year.

He had been happier here with Stiles than he had been since his family was killed. The damn spastic kid had worked his way under Derek’s skin.

“We should study in my dorm next week for finals.” Derek blurted, deciding he wanted to spend as much alone time as possible with him. He wasn’t sure what this light feeling in his chest was, but he wasn’t willing to let it go.

“Really?” Stiles asked, looking up at him with something like careful hope on his face.

Derek just nodded, a flush creeping up his neck.

“Okay, I’ll see you at six on Thursday, sound good?”

“Sounds perfect,” Derek said.

Stiles gave him a small smile and Derek found himself smiling back.

 

XXX

That next Thursday Stiles had shown up exactly at six, carrying books and cookies galore.

“Okay so I brought all my notes from class plus the econ 101, 204, and 302 books, as well as ginger snaps, oatmeal, mm’s, and chocolate chip cookies.” he said, hefting his heavy load.

Derek took the cookies from him and set them on his desk.

With his a single dorm room they had the place entirely to themselves. Stiles plopped down on the bed, making himself at home, spreading out his notes, and flipping to marked pages in his books. Derek pulled his desk chair up to the bed and sat across form him, looking at all his notes.

“Where should we start?” Stiles asked.

Derek looked up at him, Stiles cheeks were slightly flushed from the cold outside and the likely exertion of the four flights of stairs up to Derek’s dorm. He sniffed lightly and picked up all the scents hanging off Stiles; fresh cookies, light spices, fresh bread, soap, and laundry detergent.

“We can start anywhere you like.” He said, looking right into Stiles' molten brown eyes.

Stiles smiled at him and they started studying.

 

Several hours later, Derek’s back hurt from sitting in the plastic desk chair and leaning over the bed. Papers, textbooks and cookie crumbs littered everything, and Stiles was lying across the bed, leaving Derek to both love and hate that it would probably smell of Stiles when he went to sleep.

Stiles groaned, sitting up on the bed and shaking out his shoulders before moving back up the bed and leaning against the headboard.

“So, I’ve been looking at this graph for the Tachi Motorist Company and I’m getting confused.” Stiles said, huffing as he glared down at the textbook.

Derek leaned forward a little more, but Stiles was way too far now for him to see the book. “Let me see,” he asked.

Stiles glanced up at him, then at the distance between the two of them and then frowned. “I really don’t want to move.” He glared at the distance like it would suddenly shrink. “Just come here.” he said, exasperated.

Derek glanced at the small space on the bed, but his back hurt so much from the awkward chair position that it was more than tempting. It had nothing to do with relishing the thought of sitting so close to Stiles.

Nothing to do with it.

Derek stood up and walked around the side of the bed, Stiles shifted over, making room, and then Derek carefully sat down, making sure they weren’t touching. Ensuring Stiles stayed conformable. Derek wasn’t exactly comfortable himself because he was half falling off the bed, but he wasn’t telling Stiles that.

Stiles started talking the moment Derek sat down, tilting the book in Derek's direction so he could see the graph. “Okay, so if the ceiling price wasn’t affected during the—“

“Price ceiling.” Derek corrected.

“Whatever.” Stiles waved his hand at him, and Derek hid his smile in a scowl. “Anyway, if the price ceiling wasn’t affected by the monopoly, how could it be all that profitable?” he asked, avidly studying the textbook like the answer would jump out at him.

“It was still profitable because they were the only ones making profit off the commodity.” Derek explained patiently. It turned out that Stiles was good at a lot of things, but economics wasn’t one of them, he just didn't care enough to pay attention. Stiles had even attempted to write an essay on male circumcision instead of the assigned essay on company profit because he thought it was more interesting. Derek stopped him.

“Ugh,” Stiles flailed in aggravation, which Derek hadn’t thought could be a reaction to aggravation before he met Stiles, and knocked over a pile of loose leaf papers, scattering them to the floor. “Oh my god!” Stiles squealed in a way he would no doubt deny later, and launched himself over Derek and nearly off the bed trying to catch them.  

Derek gasped as he caught an elbow to the stomach, and then reached out, grabbing Stiles around the middle to keep him from falling off the bed. Derek was tipping precariously from his only half-on position on the bed when Stiles started wiggling, trying not to slide off the bed and off Derek while still rooting around for all the papers.

Derek tensed as Stiles position shifted so that he was lying across Derek’s lap, ass in the air, with his head and shoulders hanging off the bed. His crotch was perfectly in line with Derek’s.

Stiles continued reaching forward, sliding closer to the ground as he reached for additional papers on the floor and began to unintentionally grind into Derek’s lap. It obviously wasn’t on purpose, but more like he was using Derek for leverage to reach further off the bed. Derek’s dick didn’t get the message.

The more Stiles moved, the more friction he created, and with Derek’s arms wrapped around the still wiggling Stiles, and Stiles’ ass waving in the air, it was really hard to convince his dick that this wasn’t the time.

Derek could feel it becoming more and more interested, and it would only be a moment or two before Stiles noticed, and Derek had no idea how to feel about it. A portion of himself that was larger than he wanted to admit, relished in the idea of Stiles finding out just how much he turned Derek on.

His wolf wanted Stiles to know exactly how much Derek wanted him.

That thought right there had Derek bucking up once, dislodging Stiles completely and sending him toppling to the floor. Stiles hit with a thud and groaned, which Derek almost mistook as a moan, sending a shiver down his spine and a rush of blood somewhere south of his waist.

He launched himself off the other side of the bed, thinking of horrible, horrible things to make his issue go away. Wolfsbane. Dead puppies. Old people. Old dead people.  Old dead people having sex.

His brain sort of died at the image of skeletons with the barest layer of decaying flesh falling off their bones, trying to rut against each other, and his dick lost all interest in anything. Ever.

When he was sure he was calm, he walked around the other side of the bed and started helping Stiles collect the rest of the papers off the floor.

“I fell, dude,” Stiles said, glaring at Derek, and not so subtly blaming him. 

Derek shrugged, trying to be nonchalant, “Yes, you did.”

Stiles glared for a moment more before he huffed, collecting the last of the papers off the floor and shuffling them into a crude pile. Stiles stood up and Derek followed suit, but then Stiles set down the papers, grabbed a plastic cup from the desk and walked into the bathroom.

Derek sat back down on the bed as he listened to Stiles running the faucet and filling his cup. Derek was just trying to figure out if he should move back to the chair when Stiles came back out, gulping down the last few mouthfuls of water, a single drop slipping out and running down his chin before he caught it with his hand.

Derek looked away quickly, and Stiles walked back to the bed, flinging himself down, jostling Derek who was now fully on the bed unlike last time.

This time when they settled, they were most definitely touching each other, and Derek couldn’t find the will to move away. It was totally because he was more comfortable now that he was siting entirely on the bed. It had nothing to do with the warth of Stiles body pressing into him.

Oh screw it.

Derek relished every point where they touched; their arms, their hips, their thighs. He could feel the heat from Stiles and it touched his skin like electricity.

Derek worked hard to ignore it, or at least pretend like he didn’t feel it, but it stopped being hard when he smelled the emotions coming off Stiles.

Stiles smelled of his base scents; fresh bread and spice, but also of comfort and calm, with hints of frustration from the homework. There was nothing sexual coming off him.

It was a little depressing, but it helped Derek remember that he wasn’t interested in dating right now, he wasn’t ready, and lusting after Stiles wouldn’t do any good right now.

 

Stiles’ heartbeat slowed during their studying and Derek felt continued comfort rolling off Stiles, putting Derek even more at ease. He did relish sitting this close to Stiles, smelling his every scent, watching his chest rise up and down with his breathing, and his long fingers dancing across the page, following his reading, but Derek used these things for comfort and calm instead of anything like before, with the paper incident.

After another hour, they had both slowly sunk lower and lower on the bed, until they were lying down next to each other, holding pages above their heads, trying to continue to read, but having lost interest in sitting up.

He wasn’t really sure when they fell asleep, but it was the best and most solid night of sleep he’d had in a long time.

_Derek was warm, comfort and contentedness dragging him deeply into sleep. At one point he felt the warmth on his side slowly start to pull away, and he tightened his arm, pulling the warmth back in._

 

Derek opened his eyes the next morning, his eyelids only barely cracking open as he became aware of his surroundings. Pressed up against the length of his body was the still sleeping Stiles, in their sleep, they had curled into each other, spooning, with Derek’s arm thrown around Stiles’ waist.

Still half asleep, Derek smiled slightly, not really processing what was happening and he closed his eyes again, letting himself drift away.

It was another hour before he woke up for real, and Stiles was still curled into him, still asleep. With Derek now fully awake and aware of the situation he was in, he quickly removed his arm, and scooted himself away from Stiles. Stiles grumbled lightly in his sleep and seemed to shiver at the loss of warmth.

That alone was almost enough to convince Derek to lie back down next to him, but he stayed standing.

He didn’t know what he was doing. He wasn’t ready for a relationship. Doing these things with Stiles, being this intimate, he was going to lead him on, and Derek wasn’t ready to be with anyone.  He just lost his entire family less than two years ago, he was completely denying half of his identity, trying to start a relationship could actually physically hurt someone. Derek was just worried it wouldn’t be himself.

Derek sighed, maybe if anyone understood all that, it would be Stiles. Something about the strange comfort that rolled off him in waves, practically mingling with his scent, made Derek believe that Stiles would be more than willing to give Derek time.

 

XXX

Finals came and went, but Stiles continued showing up around him despite the end of their class time together. Stiles continued to do most of the talking, but Derek was getting better with reciprocation. He even finally got around to asking why Stiles smelled like dogs sometimes. Stiles had laughed, having mostly forgotten about Derek’s oversensitive nose because Derek had made a point not to mention all the things he smelled.

Stiles told him he volunteered in a local animal hospital, working with the sick and abandoned dogs. He was good with caring for pups.

Derek felt that weird lightening sensation in his stomach when Stiles said that, and he was struck by the urge to talk to him about wolves, and possibly about the fact that he was one.

 

 

He and Stiles continued to study together, despite the fact they had different classes and often entirely different subjects. Stiles was majoring in biology so he could become a vet one day, while Derek was still majoring in economics. Derek had also considered taking more science classes just so he could find something else to connect to Stiles with.

Stiles, on the other hand, had no such issues with finding things to connect the two of them. He found out Derek used to be very skilled at fighting, though Derek didn’t mention that he learned by attacking and defending his pack from other werewolves, and they started training together on the side.

It was fun to practice with Stiles. The close range drill meant he got to put his hands on him in a way which was platonic and acceptable, and covered some of the ache he was starting to feel when Stiles wasn’t around.

Derek refused to think of the ache he felt when Stiles was around, when the urge to touch bubbled up into the front of Derek’s mind.

It turn out Stiles was very capable with hand-to-hand combat and Derek was extremely rusty, so at first Stiles often knocked him to the floor with very little difficultly.

Much to Derek’s embarrassment, every time he hit the floor he started to get a little turned on at Stiles’ strength, and his wolf started to consider him as a possible partner. He squashed the desire to feel input from that part of himself, though he found he was pulling away from it less and less, letting the wolf creep back in slowly.

He held Stiles in his arms, squeezing just shy of too tight as Stiles readied himself for escape. Derek was standing behind him, his arms crossed over Stiles’ belly and he felt Stiles tense as he prepared to attack, and just before he did, Derek leaned in slightly, his nose brushing below Stiles’ ear.

Stiles snapped into action to escape the hold, laughing lightly at the touch. His elbow struck out into Derek’s stomach just as his heel went down into Derek’s foot. Stiles reached down and picked up one of Derek's feet, pulling it up, and Derek suddenly lost his balance falling backward.

If Derek had been human, or had the strength of the human, he would have lost his hold on Stiles and he would have fallen away from him, leaving Stiles to get away in a real fight.

Derek was not human.

Instead, Derek had maintained his grip on Stiles’ waist and accidentally pulled him down with him. Stiles had twisted in the air, trying to save himself, but ended up landing on top of Derek, his body weight slamming into Derek’s chest, knocking the air from him.

Stiles tried to roll off him immediately as Derek gasped for breath, but in Derek’s oxygen-deprived fog, he hadn’t let go of Stiles, and Stiles stayed nestled up next to his face. Derek’s first breaths of air were filled with Stiles’ intoxicating scent of fresh bread and spices as well as the mix of sweat, and now some arousal from one or the other of them, he wasn’t sure.

They both layed on the floor for a moment, Stiles still on top of him, looking into each other’s eyes almost searching. Derek leaned in just the slightest bit, their faces just inches apart. As his eyes dropped to Stiles’ lips, the door to the gym slammed open, and a group of people walked in, making a ruckus, completely unaware of what was going on.

Stiles and Derek both jumped up as if they had been caught doing something, and then grabbed their stuff and left the gym, both breathing heavily, and not saying a word.

 

After the day at the gym, it was like a switch was flipped. Every single stupid action Stiles made, Derek suddenly turned sexual.

EVERY. SINGLE. ACTION.

Stiles holds a pencil.

Derek sees long fingers curling around the stick, moving slightly, gripping, the intense concentration as Stiles stares at the paper, tongue poking out of his mouth. 

Derek starts sweating and has to turn his head as his brain replaces the pencil with something else entirely.

Stiles ties his shoe.

Derek sees Stiles hunched over, leaning forward, long fingers fiddling with the laces as once again Stiles’ tongue slips out in concentration.

 Stiles looks up, his face level with what could be the button of Derek’s jeans, and Derek has to suppress the urge to move forward, get closer.

Stiles is totally to blame for all of this. Those damn fingers, moving constantly, tapping, poking, gripping everything, left Derek struggling to look away. Not to mention Stiles’ mouth, the kid was constantly licking his lips, tongue peeking out whenever focus is required, wetting his lips like he’s preparing for something.

The amount of jacking off Derek was doing was actually causing some chafing. He was having an increasingly hard time trying to remember why he didn't throw Stiles over his shoulder and just lock them in his dorm room for a few days.

He can’t though.

He can’t.

In the months after meeting Stiles, Derek did feel like he was healing after what had happened to his family, never getting over the loss, but accepting it.

 At this point, Derek did finally understand what caused him to suppress his wolf.

 Derek had believed that his family being wolves is why the hunters had killed them, which was true, but it wasn’t the fault of the wolves, it was the fault of the hunters.

He also believed that as a wolf he should have protected his family, should have saved them, and if he couldn’t do that, what good was the wolf anyway? Derek had finally come to grips with the fact that he was sixteen when they died, still a kid, and that even the strongest of his family hadn’t been able to stop the hunters. Derek had done what he could.

Derek still had trouble accepting that his wolf and he were one person again. He couldn’t imagine the feeling of loss that would engulf him when he became the wolf and was all alone without his pack surrounding him.

But now he no longer felt as alone. Stiles was with him, and even though he wasn’t exactly sure what their relationship was anymore, especially after the almost kiss, he knew he had him. He definitely wasn’t alone.

 

Derek sat alone in his room, finishing up his homework for the week. He had already arranged to miss all his classes tomorrow, and he had been planning on spending the day in the woods. He already knew how painful it would be to finally become the wolf again for the first time in two years, not just emotionally, but physically. The shift was harder when it wasn’t done frequently.

When a knock on the door distracted Derek from whatever math question he was supposed to be working on, Derek was confused, he wasn’t really expecting anyone, and rarely did anyone ever visit him anyway.

Standing on the other side of the door was Stiles, weighted down by three economics books and massive pile of loose paper.

“I need help.” he said simply, and Derek let him in.

Stiles dropped his stuff on Derek’s bed and sat down like he was there all time, which admittedly he had been spending more time here recently.

“Okay, so explain economics to me.” he said, looking up at Derek, utterly serious.

Derek smiled, pulled up a chair, and started helping him.

 

_The screams echoed through the trees as shots rang out through the woods. Derek ran faster and faster but he couldn’t seem to escape the hunters that were chasing after him. He pulled his sister, Laura, along, clutching her hand as he yanked her this way and that. She was struggling to keep up, but he kept pulling._

_Another shot rang out, and this time the scream was way too close. Laura’s shriek of pain rang in his ears and he lost his grip on her hand as she collapsed to the ground._

_“Run, Derek! Run!”_

 

Derek woke with a start, unsure where he was, but the feeling of danger still had a grip on his panicked heart. He sat up, swinging his arms, his hand crashing into a lamp and sending it toppling to the floor.

“Derek! What are you doing? What’s going on?” a voice was screaming at him and he immediately thought it was Laura, still yelling for him to run.

His eyes were glazed with panic from the nightmare, so it kept him from processing he wasn’t still in the woods. He stood up and tried to launch himself across the room, trying to escape and take down anyone in his way.

Not knowing what else to do, Stiles had stood up and thrown himself on Derek, gripping tightly to his chest, squeezing him into a hug as tightly as he could. “It’s okay, Derek,” he whispered, “it’s okay.”

It took him a full minute, but he came back to his senses.  He slowly remembered that he and Stiles had been studying in his dorm room last night and he had fallen asleep on the bed.

He was still breathing hard, but he squeezed Stiles back, as hard as he was squeezing Derek because Derek needed the reassurance that someone was there for him.

When his breathing returned to normal, he sagged a little, letting the tension drain out of him, and he slowly released Stiles.

Stiles took a step back and studied him, worry etched in every line of his face. Derek swallowed and looked away, starting to apologize.

“Tell me what happened.” Stiles said, his voice filled with sincerity, and for the first time since it happened, Derek talked about it with someone else.

Derek told him about how men with guns had come into his family home and had started shooting everyone, starting with his parents. He had grabbed Laura and run out through the back door. The men had followed them out and had continued shooting anyone they saw, and had eventually hit Derek’s sister.

Today would have been her birthday.

Stiles sat very still on the bed next to him; his face held a look of immense sadness, and Derek almost wished he hadn’t told him, just to spare Stiles the pain he carried around with him.

Stiles reached forward and his hand cupped Derek’s face, he let his thumb drag across Derek’s cheekbone, and Stiles blinked a single tear from his eye. Then Stiles leaned forward and placed a single kiss on his lips.

Stiles was the one thing in his life that was calming and sincere, and right now Derek thought he would give anything to be with him forever. So with Stiles’ silent permission, he leaned forward and kissed him back, slowly at first, before deepening the kiss and opening his mouth slightly.

It turned out Stiles had a lot more history with this than Derek thought, clearly skilled from a lot of practice, something Derek chose to ignore, if only after making the decision to make sure Stiles never kissed anyone else again.

Stiles opened his mouth in return and swirled his tongue with Derek’s, while roaming his hands up and down Derek’s chest and back.

Derek never wanted to leave that spot.

He carded his fingers through Derek’s hair and Derek nearly moaned; it felt so good to touch someone like this, to be with someone after he had spent so much time alone.

Stiles was leaning into him, and Derek was trying to pull him closer, wrapping his arms around Stiles. The beginnings of a growl echoed from the center of his chest, and Stiles laughed, but didn’t pull away. Stiles kissed him with a fierceness Derek didn’t know he was capable of and suddenly Derek’s wolf had control.

Derek panicked as the wolf took over, pulling Stiles flush against him, forgetting all the niceties of their previous touch. It suddenly became rough, with pulling and tugging, pressing and squeezing and when Derek wrangled control, he stood up very quickly, nearly dropping Stiles onto the floor.

He had officially accepted his wolf, but it wasn’t allowed to take control, not when he was with Stiles, not when Stiles could get hurt.

“I’m sorry, I have to leave.” He said, shoving on shoes, and going to the door.

Stiles looked hurt and confused, and he didn’t want to leave him, but Derek couldn’t risk coming back until he had some control. He closed the door behind him, leaving Stiles alone in his room.

He sprinted out of the door in just jeans and a t-shirt despite the fact it was full on winter now. He gave the cold no heed and ran off into the woods.

The moment he broke the tree line, he gave himself over to the wolf completely, and as his bones shifted, crunching and reshaping, he became the wolf once again.

The pain was incredible as his body went from a tall man to a massive wolf, but the moment all four paws touched the ground, the pain slipped away like an unimportant detail.

He ran through the woods on all fours, smelling whatever interested the wolf, but he could feel the longing for the pack he knew was gone, and as the sun set and moon rose, he began to howl.

Derek stayed in the woods all night, running and running and running, never stopping. When the wolf was finally tired, Derek, still on all fours, dropped to the ground in the same place he started and fell asleep next to his pile of tattered clothes that the wolf couldn’t bring himself to care about.

Derek woke up and turned back. He walked out of the woods in the early morning, his ripped clothes having been hastily thrown on, and he avoided the few students wondering through the campus on his way back to his dorm.

Derek made it back to his dorm room with little attention from any passersby despite his shirt barely covering his chest and his pants being nearly shreds. He opened the dorm door but stood frozen in the hallway. The scent of fresh bread and spices mixed with anxiety, confusion, depression, and anger lingered all over his room, hitting him full force as he remembered how he had abandoned Stiles last night just after their first kiss.

He sighed deeply, not sure how he was going to fix it, but he knew where he needed to start. Derek dug through his clothes and found something nice to wear before going to the bathroom to take a shower.

He went downstairs to grab a quick bite to eat because his run left him starving, and then headed straight over to Stiles’ dorm room. Derek knew full well Stiles was still there because he could smell him from the lobby. Somehow, since the release of his wolf, Derek felt inexplicably drawn to Stiles like he never had before.

For once he didn’t fight the feeling.

Derek knocked on Stiles’ door, and then stood in the hallway listening. There was no sound of moving, as if Stiles had frozen on the bed, staring at the door. There was only one heartbeat, his roommate was out, but the beat was erratic and increasing in speed as wafts of anger and confusion drifted through the door.

After a solid minute of no movement, Derek knocked again and said quietly, "I know you are in there." 

A normal human would not have heard the resigned puff of air as Stiles got off the bed and stalked to the door.

Stiles swung open the door, still in a huff, and glared at him. Something about the look made Derek’s wolf jump, and Derek was powerless to fight the sudden urge to lean down and kiss him, which he did.

Stiles responded immediately to the kiss, his lips reacting perfectly in time to Derek's. Derek took an experimental sniff as he kissed Stiles and smelled shock, confusion, dregs of anger, and the slightest touch of arousal. As all these emotions seemed to spin inside Stiles, anger won out and he pushed Derek back sharply.

Having expected it, Derek let it happen, even though Stiles really didn’t have the strength to move him if he wanted to stay.

Now that his wolf and he had realigned, Derek was stronger than ever.

“I’m sorry,” he said, looking deep into Stiles’ eyes, staring into the anger and confusion in them. Guilt ripped at Derek’s heart that he had caused those emotions.

“You left. Without so much as word. You can go sit in a very small, very deep hole.” Stiles’ words were angry but there was no real malice there. If Derek had a good reason, Stiles would probably forgive him.

Derek was immediately gripped with the urge to tell him everything. To spill his secret and to hope that Stiles would accept him for who he was before he threw himself into this relationship and found out Stiles wouldn’t accept him.

Following the urge came a wave of panic, what if Stiles didn’t accept him? What if he turned on him? What if he feared him?

He knew he could never survive if Stiles feared him, so he squashed the urge to tell so deep he was sure to never touch it again. Instead he looked Stiles deep in the eye and told as close to the truth as he could, “It was too much. Between the sharing and the kissing. And it was Laura’s birthday. And there was that nightmare. And they died. And I told you. I didn’t know what was happening. I freaked. I ran. I’m sorry.” His explanation was stifled by his inability to share his emotions and came out choppy and confused, but Stiles seemed to understand.

Derek shifted his weight uncomfortably from foot to foot, unsure what to do. Stiles took one look at him, and his anger broke. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Derek’s waist giving him the tightest hug he had ever received, and Derek was immensely grateful he wasn’t alone anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I bet everyone is wondering where the hell everyone else is, and I swear they are coming.  
> Like I said, everyone is a werewolf, and Derek is going through his "I am alone as a wolf" phase, but they should be showing up by next chapter.  
> If there is any confusion or mistakes, please let me know so I can fix it, I would greatly appreciate it.  
> I have no idea why the notes from the first chapter show up again below this, but I apologize because I can't figure out how to make them go away and can only hope they disappear on their own.


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Love, an apartment, a crossed line, terror, pandemonium, crying, shootings, and pack. Plus you finally get sex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So minor trigger warnings for stalking, but not really? it happens in one paragraph and then is never spoken of again.  
> If you are worried about some behaviors that occur in this chapter, read the end of the notes at the bottom for some kind of sort of maybe spoilers that should appease you.  
> Please be aware that Derek is a sad puppy, but he gets better and is better.
> 
> This is about 10 chapters long, we are only on chapter three! Don't cry and don't think this is the end!
> 
> And finally I lied about OCs because I wasn't sure if I wanted to make the last two OCs canon characters or leave them as is. I decided to leave them as is because you hopefully won't hate them and they fit better than a real character would. So FYI two OMCs are going to be wondering around.
> 
> I apologize for the long notes both at the bottom and top, but I just had a lot of feels, and I felt the need straighten out some things because I reiterate that Stiles is not stupid and everyone tries to do what is best for everyone!
> 
> Say no to unhealthy relationships!

Derek fell fast and hard and attached himself wholeheartedly to the man who filled some of the emptiness in his chest.

His relationship with Stiles moved quickly. They started with normal dates; going out to dinner, going to see movies, and sometimes just sitting together eating and studying.

Derek started to learn the spots on Stiles that made him giggle, ones that made him gasp, and the ones that made him squish closer towards Derek. Stiles also had several spots that made him hum, a development that Derek found immensely distracting and amusing. Rubbing his fingers along the back of Stiles’ neck or lightly massaging his calves always made him lean into Derek, and Derek nearly always got a kiss out of it.

Stiles apparently learned some things about him too, he loved to have Stiles’ fingers in his hair, he loved when Stiles rubbed his thumbs on the skin behind Derek’s ear, just behind his jaw line, and he loved when Stiles kissed the hollow of his throat. He was also starting to realize Derek loved when Stiles smelled like him. He didn’t know that it was because Stiles smelled like his.

Not everything was perfect in their relationship; Derek was still learning to reacquaint himself with his wolf which meant he was sometimes prone to violent outbursts. He would start shouting at something that shouldn’t be bothering him as much as it was, and though it was never aimed at Stiles, he always seemed to be in the room when it happened. As Derek shouted, Stiles sat quietly on the bed staring up at him. When Derek slowed down to take a breath, Stiles would stand up and wrap his arms around him, holding tight, just like on his mother’s birthday. They would stand like that until Derek finally calmed down enough to breathe right, and then they would just lie next to each other for a while.

After his third or fourth explosion, he realized how much he hated subjecting Stiles to his anger, and he started running as a wolf more frequently. He gave his wolf more control, and he regained strength and power that he had forgotten he possessed.

After a while, he began to feel like he was completely whole, entirely stable, and things became far easier. He almost never exploded anymore, he and Stiles had become closer and he couldn’t imagine his life without Stiles, without his calming presence.

 

After several months, nearing the beginning of a new school year, Derek made a decision. He no longer saw any reason that their relationship couldn’t move forward, so one day in the middle of studying, Derek asked the question that had been lurking at the back of his mind for a while now.

“Would you be okay with moving in together?” he blurted it out, not wanting to think it through.

Stiles looked up from his book, startled, but a grin was slowly spreading across his features and Derek felt his muscles relax in response to that easy smile.

“Yes, Derek, I would be just fine with that.” Stiles said teasingly, before throwing himself off the bed and landing on top of Derek, kissing him until his shortness of breath had nothing to do with Stiles solid weight on top of him.

 

The two of them rented an apartment just off campus, just one bedroom.

Derek couldn’t be happier, and it seemed, neither could Stiles.

There were so many things he loved about Stiles. He loved the way Stiles laughed, with each short hiccupped huff and showed no restraint and only slight embarrassment. He loved the way his hands moved, faster than his words, as if everything was trying to catch up with that brain of his which was running faster than anyone knew. He loved the way Stiles drank water, only a sip at a time, bobbing the glass up and down in between each mouthful as if he couldn’t decide if he wanted to put it down or take just one more sip. He loved the way Stiles sang when he thought no one could hear him, all soft and voice filled with emotion, and the way he sang when he knew everyone could hear him, full of laughter and silliness, grinning ear to ear.

He loved that Stiles was strong, that he could care for himself, but that he would let Derek help him if he needed it. He loved that he was calm, watching as others tried to lash out at him, and never reacting, only comforting. That was why over the year and a half that they were together, Stiles had fixed nearly all the shattered pieces of him and coaxed him into being more open, more calm.

 He no longer had trouble sleeping so long as Stiles was lying next to him.

He loved Stiles for everything he had done, for everything he was, but he loved him most because he was his.

Derek and Stiles took two days to move into the apartment, and Stiles had set about sterilizing the whole place, though Derek had stolen the more odorous chemicals and replaced them with something kinder to his nose.

As more and more boxes were unpacked, the place started to smell more like home, more like Derek and Stiles. In fact, as the items from both their dorm rooms mixed together in the apartment, the scent became more like _DerekStiles_ and Derek loved it. More than once he found himself burying his nose on the couch where Derek’s blankets and Stiles’ pillows were intermingling.

Stiles walked in while Derek’s face was pressed deep into one of the pillows and Stiles laughed, loud and clear, and filled with honest glee.

Derek heard the double thud of shoes being removed and before he had time to look to see what Stiles was doing, he felt the full weight of Stiles press down on his back.

Stiles moved quickly, adjusting his weight so it didn’t impede Derek’s breathing, and he slid half off Derek and into the space between him and the back of the couch. Derek rolled over slightly so Stiles slid the rest of the way off and they lied on the couch, looking at each other, pressed together from chest to ankle.

“Well, hello there.” Stiles said, gazing up at Derek, mirth still bubbling up on his face.

“Hello,” Derek responded, a small smile growing on his lips.

Stiles groaned and buried his face into Derek’s neck, “We have so many more boxes to unpack.”

Derek chuckled and wrapped his arms around Stiles, more than content to stay on the couch and avoid unpacking for a little while longer.

Derek buried his nose in Stiles’ hair and breathed in, filling his senses with Stiles. There was sweat, coffee, exhaustion, happiness, comfort, and calm, and beneath it all was pure Stiles: spice and fresh bread.

“I don’t want to move a muscle,” Stiles groaned, peaking his head from Derek’s neck and looking over Derek’s shoulder to the boxes that littered the floor, glaring at them like he could make them disappear with the power of his mind.

“No one said you had to move.” Derek said, gripping Stiles a little tighter, letting his lips move against Stiles’ forehead while he spoke, “I’m more than happy to stay here.”

“Oh really?” asked Stiles, wiggling up a little until their faces were at the same level. “Cause I can think of some awesome things to do that do not involve any boxes and zero unpacking.

“Oh?” asked Derek, smirking before leaning forward and pressing his lips against Stiles’.

Stiles didn’t respond and only opened his mouth, swirling his tongue against Derek’s. Stiles rolled them both, putting himself on top, straddling Derek’s hips.

Stiles pulled away from Derek’s mouth and sat up, looking down at Derek’s no doubt flushed appearance. “I think we need to christen the apartment,” he grinned, punctuating his words with a downward grind, and Derek moan as the friction of his jeans inspired blood to rush to his dick.

“Where do we start?” asked Derek before shooting forward and pressing his lips against Stiles again, pulling Stiles flush against him as he laid back down.

Both were a little distracted by the other’s mouth and the mindless grinding as Stiles ground down and Derek pushed back up.

Stiles pulled up a little, gasping for air, while still moving his hips as he sought out more friction. Derek latched himself to Stiles throat, pressing kisses up and down the muscle there, before following the path with his tongue and then again with smaller biting kisses.

Derek never really _marked_ Stiles, but hickeys were more possesion and more kink than wolf; not actually considered marking.

Stiles arched up when Derek pressed his teeth against Stiles’ clavicle, Derek’s tongue moving out to brush along the bone. Stiles collapsed back down, biting Derek’s lips and rolling his hips into Dereks crotch before pulling away again.

“I had plans for christening this apartment and it did not involve coming in my pants,” he panted, ignoring Derek’s whine when he moved off of Derek and stood next to the couch.

“Shush, Sourpants, we are moving off this couch, getting naked and having sex on the bed, because I refuse to get cumstuck to this couch and it would be a bitch to clean up.”

Derek reached up to pull Stiles back down, not really caring about how bad couch clean up would be later, but Stiles dodged his arm, and sneaked backwards, taunting Derek as he moved towards the bedroom.

“Come on, Sourpants, don’t you want to be involved in the christening of the apartment? Because if you take much longer, I might have to do it on my own.”

Stiles reached down and pressed the heel of his hand into his own crotch before winking at Derek and ducking into the bedroom, ripping off his flannel shirt as he went.

Derek was off the couch and chasing after him within seconds, whipping off his own shirt before ever reaching the bedroom door.

“Derek—“ Stiles spun around, likely still thinking Derek was on the couch, needing more coaxing, but instead he turned right into Derek and nearly lost his balance. Derek caught him, pulling Stiles into his chest, but not before appropriating Stiles’ t-shirt, and tossing it onto the floor.

Stiles’ creamy chest glistened in the sun from the window, his moles lighting up and Derek was suddenly filled with the urge to lick every one.

Later.

Right now, he pulled Stiles flush against him and starting laving at his mouth, kisses getting hard and desperate as they moved closer to the bed. Stiles was haphazardly working at the button on Derek’s jeans, and Derek reached down trying to get to Stiles’. While they both struggled to get the other pantless, the kisses continued but lost all finesse, becoming only presses of the mouth and tongue and puffs of air as they tried to stay as close as possible.

“Oh my god, Derek, they won’t come off!” Stiles’s voice was frustrated and breathless, and Derek couldn’t help but laugh as he took his own hands off Stiles’ jeans and moved them to his own, divesting himself of the offending article. Then watched as Stiles’ did the same.

“Oh god.” Derek groaned as he saw Stiles’ cock straining hard against the cotton of his briefs. He moved to drop down, but Stiles caught him, throwing him back down onto the bed and climbing on top of him.

“Sorry, Derek, but I had very specific plans for this christening.” Stiles said, before tugging at Derek’s own briefs. Derek got the message and lifted his hips to facilitate their removal before Stiles started laving at his throat, kissing followed by sweeps of tongue that had Derek squirming, trying to get more friction for his now uncovered and untouched cock.

Stiles dragged his teeth down from Derek throat to the center of his chest and Derek moaned, loud and long. “Fuck Stiles.”

“We’ll get to that.” smirked Stiles, nipping at Derek’s nipples before moving further down Derek’s chest, starting to lick at Derek’s happy trail, before blowing on it to watch the short black hairs move.

Derek writhed as the warm air ghosted over his cock and he moved to grip himself when Stiles stopped him with a firm, “No.”

Derek whined as Stiles moved down further and puffed hot air at Derek’s cock. Stiles smirked up at him, before moving in and dragging his tongue up the underside, starting at the base and stopping at the end, and swirling his tongue at the head.

Derek just barely kept himself from bucking up as Stiles took him inside his mouth, moving deeper and deeper, and Derek gasped as the tight heat, and he focused on anything else to keep from coming.

“Jesus Stiles.” He moaned, and Stiles laughed, still with Derek’s cock in his mouth. The vibrations forced Derek to start writhing again.

Stiles started to pull back, and swept his tongue in a complicated pattern, before sliding over the slit. Derek moaned again and Stiles took that moment to dive back down, taking him in all at once, and when Derek felt himself hit the back of Stiles’ throat, his balls tightened and he arched up shouting, “Stiles!” trying to give him some warning for being embarassingly quick.

Stiles simply smiled and wiggled his tongue on the underside of Derek’s cock, still in his mouth, and Derek was coming. Stiles pulled back the slightest bit and swallowed down everything.

Stiles lapped at Derek’s cock, picking up everything he missed until Derek was too sensitive for it, then he finally moved up and laid next to Derek.

Derek panted, unable to do more than hold Stiles for a moment.

“That was your plan for christening the apartment?” he asked, trying to get his brain fully online and focusing on something.

“Oh no, it only counts as a complete christening when we have both come at least once.” smirked Stiles, rolling more onto Derek and grinding his still hard cock against Derek’s leg.

“Wait one more moment and I will get right on with reciprocating.” His voice coming out deep and rumbly, as post organism sleepiness pulled at him.

“Nope, you won’t be reciprocating, not like that.” said Stiles.

“What?” asked Derek, eyebrows knitting together. He was happy with anything  Stiles ever did to him, but he took a personal satisfaction from giving the same back, trying desperately to make it as good or better for Stiles as it was for him.

Stiles gave an impish grin when he looked up at him. “Now that you are all calm and sated, you can take your time opening me up and then we are going to fuck. It only really counts as christening when real fucking occurs.” Stiles winked, and Derek suddenly found he had all the energy in the world.

With the brief fear instilled when Derek thought that Stiles wasn’t going to let him reciprocate anymore, Derek had every intention of making this the best time Stiles had ever had.

He flipped them, Derek settled in between Stiles’ legs as Stiles laid on his back, staring up at him.

Derek shoved a pillow under Stiles for better access, and then moved Stiles’ legs so they were up on his shoulders. Derek dug through  the bed side table for the few items they had already unpacked. He pulled out lube and a condom and set them on the bed next to him. He lubed up his index finger and rubbed it around Stiles’ hole, teasing the edge.

Stiles suddenly bucked down, pushing Derek’s finger inside of him, completely against Derek’s intention to tease more and Stiles glared up at him. “I said take your time, not be teasing and mean.”

Derek laughed, “I’ll do as I see fit.” He said, right as he crooked his finger and hit the one place that had Stiles immediately writhing and moaning.  

"Holy buckets of rice cakes." Stiles swore and Derek just laughed at the ridculousness that he was apparently greatly attracted to.

Derek felt himself trying to get hard again and was grateful for a his werewolf stamina, if a little unimpressed with his life choices.

Derek rolled his index finger around a little more before pulling out and lubing up the index again along with his middle finger. He inserted the first again, before starting to tease the second one in.

"Fuck Derek." Stiles moaned.

"We'll get to that."

Stiles glared in response before he bucked his hips again, forcing the second finger deeper and Derek chuckled at Stiles’ impatience. Stiles glared again, but the expression was lost when Derek scissored his fingers and the tip of his middle finger hit the prostate again.

Derek gave a predatory smile and then rubbed his finger in a small circle around the prostate.

“Fuck!” Stiles shouted as his body bowed backwards and he came, shooting across Derek’s stomach and his own.

“Fuck.” Stiles said again, more annoyed this time. “That wasn’t how this was supposed to go. This doesn’t count.” Stiles squirmed a little, and one of Derek’s fingers accidentally hit his prostate again, causing Stiles to gasp and grip at Derek for a moment.

“Okay,” Stiles said, regaining his breath, “here’s the plan.” Derek leaned back a little, removing his fingers from Stiles, and smiled down at Stiles’ absolutely limp body.

Derek lied down, pulling Stiles against his chest, and Stiles clung to him a little. Derek breathed in the scents in the air: cum, sweat, arousal, Stiles, Derek, and the new _StilesDerek_ that Derek was obsessed with. Derek pressed Stiles even closer as he practically absorbed that warmth coming off the other body and a little bit of drowsiness pulled at him despite his new half hard state.

“The plan,” Stiles murmured into Derek’s throat and Derek shivered at the vibrations. “is to continue, in just a moment, when I am not so sensitive, then we are going to fuck. For real. Then the apartment will be christened. It doesn’t count yet.”

Derek chuckled. “Let me know when you are ready.”

“Okay.” Stiles murmured, burying under the covers a little and curling around Derek. Derek clutched him closer and pressed his lips to Stiles’ hair, kissing him once before pressing his nose behind Stiles’ ear.

They laid still for a little while, just basking in the warmth of the other, and Derek’s half hard state had faded a little when Stiles rolled his hips a little, their cocks catching on each other and had both men shivering.

“Okay.” said Stiles, nodding to Derek.

Derek was enlivened immediately and rolled up again, throwing off the covers and resting in between Stiles’ legs before pulling them up to his shoulder and slipping a single finger inside. Still wet and open, Derek slid the second finger in, scissoring them again, but avoiding the prostate because of Stiles’ pliant state.

He loved Stiles like that. He took it as a moment of satisfaction because Stiles was all energy all the time, and post orgasm, it was like Derek had managed to fuck all the energy out of him. _He_ had been the one to calm Stiles down.

Derek removed his fingers and put on more lube, adding a third finger this time, teasing it at the entrance, and this time Stiles was too sated to force things forward quickly. Derek took his time, working it in slowly, waiting while Stiles adjusted.

Stiles cock twitched as it tried valiantly to get involved again, and something about that spurred Derek forward, and he started moving his fingers faster and faster. He pumped them in and out of Stiles, fucking him with his fingers, and when he bumped Stiles prostate again, Stiles cried out, bucking up a little, his leg falling off Derek’s shoulder, and his body sliding down until Stiles’ ass was in Derek’s lap.

Derek pulled out his fingers and Stiles whined at the loss, retaliating by grinding down onto Derek’s now fully hard cock. Derek gasped and lubed up his fourth finger, before readjusting Stiles and burying his fingers in him again.

Stiles was fully hard again too, and Derek fucked Stiles with his fingers, hitting his prostate as often as he could.

Stiles gasped and moan and then bucked himself off Derek completely. “No more.” He said, his voice stern, but breathy. “I need you in me now.”

Derek nodded dumbly and snatched the condom off the bed, opening it quickly, and rolling it on with practiced ease. Stiles wasn’t stupid enough to not insist a condom, and while Derek knew werewolves were immune to human diseases, he would never do something Stiles was uncomfortable with.

Derek lined up, looking up at Stiles, and when he was sure he was ready, he slowly pressed inside.

Derek waited while Stiles adjusted a little more and leaned forward, pressing his lips to Stiles’, before lowering his mouth and sucking a hickey into the side of Stiles’ neck.

Stiles bucked suddenly and Derek laughed, biting Stiles’ nipple before doing a tentative thrust. Stiles moaned and Derek grinned, starting up a rhythm.

Stiles reached forward and twisted his fingers in Derek’s hair, tugging slightly when Derek moaned. Derek responded by dropping low and dragging his tongue over Stiles’ nipple, earning him a gasp.

Stiles pulled Derek up and started kissing him, mostly tongue and thin presses of lips, having lost all finesse as Derek rocked faster and Stiles moved in tandem, meeting thrust for thrust. Derek rested his weight on one arm and reached in between them gripping Stiles’ cock and creating tight space for him to fuck into.

Stiles continued to rock up and down. Up into Derek’s hand and down onto Derek’s cock. During one particular down thrust, Stiles shot forward, wrapping his arm around Derek’s neck, pressing his lips to Derek’s, fucking up hard into Derek’s hand, and coming down harder on Derek’s cock.

Derek gasped and started canting his hips faster as he got closer and closer. Stiles grinned wide and cocky before pressing his lips to Derek’s throat, working his mouth around the extended muscles, Stiles moved down and pressed his mouth to the muscle between Derek’s neck and shoulder and Derek shivered fucking faster and faster.

Stiles had no idea what he was doing, had no idea about what a claiming was, didn’t  know what it meant to Derek, but Derek knew. As Stiles moved his lips over that one spot, Derek imagined this as a real claiming, imagined Derek biting Stiles just as Stiles was biting him, just there, on that muscle between the neck and the shoulder, marking them as bound forever.

It wasn’t something that they should be doing now, they were still too young, but the thought, the idea that Stiles would be with him forever, that they would have this forever, was perfect.

Derek gasped as Stiles tightened his mouth over the spot, and Derek started a slamming pace, squeezing just shy of too tight on Stiles cock.

Stiles tugged Derek’s hair one more time as he bit down softly on Derek’s shoulder and Derek was coming. His body bowing down, covering Stiles, and it felt like his insides came out through his cock.

Stiles shivered and thrust down a few more times and up into Derek’s hand before he was coming with a shout.

Derek worked Stiles through the last of it before pulling out, taking off and tying the condom, and tossing it in the trash. Then he rolled back over and pulled Stiles on top of him.

Stiles flopped over him, twinning his legs with Derek’s and pushing his feet under the covers at the end of the bed. Derek held him, eyes closed, as he enjoyed the afterglow.

Derek wasn’t sure how long they lied there, but their heartbeats had both slowed, and the scent of sex and arousal and happiness was suffused in the air, making Derek sleepy and happy.

Stiles suddenly started wiggling and rolled off Derek, working his way off the bed. Derek growled slightly, annoyed that Stiles was leaving, but Stiles only laughed and kissed Derek before disappearing out of the room.

Derek frowned at the space on his chest that Stiles should be occupying and glared at the air like Stiles would suddenly reappear there.

Stiles did reappear moments later, clean and with a wash cloth. He slowly worked over Derek’s body, cleaning up all the leftover cum. Then he rolled Derek over to a dry spot on the gigantic bed, and climbed in after Derek.

Derek turned, pulling Stiles in line with his body, Stiles’ back to his own chest, and then threw his arm over Stiles, pulling him even closer. Stiles twinned his legs with Derek’s again and leaned down to grab the covers. The angle and the movement had Stiles’ ass pressed against Derek’s well spent cock, and Derek growled a little, pulling Stiles up straight and impossibly closer, pulling the covers over them as well.

Stiles snuggled into the embrace and then huffed slightly.

“What?” asked Derek, his voice thick with the sleep he knew would come soon.

“We still have to unpack more, I need to find my nicer shirts.” mumbled Stiles.

“I’m perfectly fine with you walking around naked, I won’t mind.”

“You might not mind, but Lizzie will, and so will Carolyn. I really don’t think you want me walking around naked with them, I didn’t think you were into sharing, but I certainly am not.”

“No.” Derek growled, tightening his arm around Stiles’ chest.

Stiles laughed, “didn’t think so.”

They laid there a moment more in silence, drifting closer to sleep.

“Do you think we are moving too fast?” asked Stiles in a quiet voice.

Derek’s eyes snapped right back open. “What? No! Do you?”

He rolled Stiles over so he could look him in the eye.

“Stiles?” he asked, suddenly terrified of the answer.

“No.” Stiles said carefully, Derek waited, terrified of what inspired the question in the first place. Stiles was staring at Derek’s neck when he started talking again, “but I just worry because he have only been together for a few months and are living together. It’s not that I feel like it’s fast, but I just worry that it is and I am just too in love to realize it.“

Derek froze and looked Stiles in the eye, not sure if he hear right. “You love me?” Stiles froze too, as if he had been unaware he said it. “Stiles you don’t have to say you mean it, it could have been a slip of the tongue. I understand.”

It wasn’t a lie. He would understand. It would hurt though. Derek had been waiting to hear those words for quite a while now, and though he was sure of his own feelings, he hadn’t told Stiles because he was worried that Stiles would think it was too soon.

He could almost, kind of, see where Stiles was coming from with the too soon thing. Sure Derek knew he loved Stiles, that’s why he had asked Stiles to move in with him. It hadn’t even occurred to him that Stiles maybe wasn’t sure he loved Derek back when he said yes.

Stiles took a deep breath and looked up at Derek, like he was steeling his resolve and Derek breath caught. Was he breaking up with Derek?

“No.” Stiles said, and Derek froze again, not sure what it was no to. Derek listened to Stiles’ heartbeat but the frantic pace told him nothing.

“No it wasn’t an accident. Well it was an accident. But… I meant it. I love you. I love you, Derek.” Stiles announced in a rush.

Derek paused, trying to make the word stick in his brain, make them compute.

Stiles squirmed in the silence.

Derek looked deep into Stiles’ eyes and remembered Stiles’ heartbeat as he said it, ‘I love you, Derek,’ it was fast but it was even. It was the truth.

Derek’s grin grew fast, lighting up his whole face.

“I love you too, Stiles. “

Stiles lurched forward and kissed him again, this time all happiness and excitement, but it was slow and relatively chaste.

Stiles pulled back and then they just laid there, grinning at each other like idiots.

They did that for who knows how long before something stuck in Derek’s brain.

“Why are you going to see Lizzie and Carolyn?” he asked.

“Oh.” Stiles said, shaking his head as he jumped back to that conversation. “Carolyn is going through yet another break up and we are having yet another Guys Suck party. I would invite you, but I think our relationship happiness might kill the sullen mood.”

“It’s fine. I’ll continue unpacking. Hell, without you here distracting me, I might actually get some work done.” Derek said with a smile.

Stiles scowled and socked him on the arm, “the only way I am distracting you is if you are staring at my fine ass while I work.”

Derek’s smile grew, “I don’t disagree.”

Stiles laughed lightly. “But seriously though, don’t stay home and unpack, you should go out with friends, have some time off, some time away from little old me. You can’t miss me if we are constantly together.”

Derek was so stuck on Stiles referring to their apartment as ‘home’ that he didn’t really hear the rest of the statement at first.

“Stiles, I don’t have any friends to hang out with.”

Stiles brows furrowed, “of course you do, you have….” Stiles stopped and stared at Derek, trying to will friends to suddenly appear.

Derek smirked a little. He had all he needed, he had Stiles.

“Derek, how can you not have friends?” asked Stiles seriously.

“I’m grumpy and don’t talk to people.”

“What about Steven?” Stiles asked, suddenly remembering Derek’s next door neighbor who had introduced them.

“I think I saw him for a minute on move out day, but I hadn’t talked to him since the end of that first semester.” Derek said, shrugging.

“That’s not—Derek, you need to have friends outside of our relationship. We seriously cannot be that codependent.” Stiles brow wrinkled further and Derek wanted to press him thumb to Stiles forehead and smooth it out again.

“Stiles, it’s fine. I’m happy. I have you. I don’t need anyone else.” Derek smiled softly down at him, and kissed Stiles’ forehead.

“Derek, you can’t—that’s not—Derek…” Stiles let loose the saddest sigh he had ever heard. “We are getting you some friends. Tomorrow. This is happening. Don’t even doubt it.”

“Of course, Stiles.” He kissed Stiles again and then arranged them so Stiles’ back was to his chest again. “I love you.” He whispered.

“I love you, too.” Stiles said, and Derek grinned behind him, planting another kiss on the back of Stiles’ neck.

 He really didn’t need anyone else. This was perfect as it was.

Derek laid for a long time listening to Stiles’ heartbeat, the steady beat that was always just a little bit too fast, and he breathed in the mixed scent of the two of them. He finally fell asleep with a smile on his lips.

 

Derek woke up looked down at the sleeping form, curled into his arms and kissed him on his neck. He kissed slowly, moving down his neck until he reached his collar bone. He gazed down at Stiles’ arms, eyes meandering down one arm, and roving up the other. It was then that he saw the beginnings of a misbegotten bruise, shaped like a fingerprint that wasn’t Derek’s and his wolf moved to the surface, his own eyes glowing slightly.

His wolf went berserk when he saw any bruise or injury, no matter how small, and a growl, low and deep, would erupt from the back of his throat.

It was the only thing he hated, the fact that Stiles had so vehemently continued his martial arts training.

 He wouldn’t mind if Stiles trained just with him, he liked that Stiles could defend himself, but Stiles insisted he train with others too. Derek hated that Stiles then came home with bruises and sore muscles, when he so desperately wanted to keep Stiles safe, to keep him whole. He wanted to be the one protecting him from harm and Derek constantly wanted to kill whoever had hurt him.

There was also another thing about Stiles’ martial arts; he came home smelling like other men.

He could smell them on him, smell where they touched him, where they had laid their hands, and he couldn’t stand it. He wanted to put his claws through something when Stiles came home and it smelled like someone had tried to claim him.

Even though as a man he understood the truth, his wolf had burst out more than once in heated argument about it. Stiles said it sounded like Derek was trying to control him, telling him not to touch other people, not to see certain people. Stiles didn’t understand about his wolf, he didn’t understand that side of him.

It didn’t help Derek never told him.

This had never been a problem before. Whenever Stiles had come to see him when they lived apart, he was just showered, or had just woken, and he had always smelled of only himself. Now that they lived together, Stiles came home from practice and Derek could smell him before he even walked through the door, long before he had a chance to shower.

Recently, Stiles had started showering at the gym to hide the smells of other people on him, but Derek could always tell when he did it because he could smell the gym’s cheap soap and shampoo.

Stiles didn’t know about his wolf, he didn’t know what Derek changed into, the full wolf that wondered the woods on the full moon. The wolf that was a slave to its own instincts. Stiles barely knew that Derek could smell every person who Stiles touched, every place that he had been. Stiles didn’t understand how it confused Derek’s wolf when he borrowed other people’s clothes, when he didn’t smell like himself.

Derek worried about why it was bothering him more and more and it was only on the next full moon when he went out for a run as the wolf that the answer hit him.

Mate.

He had accepted Stiles as his mate, and now that he knew, he realized how massive a part of his life Stiles really was. With wolves, even werewolves like him, mating was for life. The problem was Stiles was human, and humans didn’t seem to do anything for life.

Derek hadn’t known that by accepting Stiles as his mate, but not gaining his acceptance in return, it would leave Derek feeling partially attached, and he _desperately_ needed something stable. But Derek didn’t want to tell Stiles what he was, he couldn’t, he didn’t want Stiles to reject him.

So when Stiles started coming home smelling like other people, any other people, Derek started to lash out, angrily telling Stiles that he was doing something wrong. Derek felt like he was fighting the entire world to keep him, and he worried constantly that he was losing. 

In Derek’s fantasy, he would tell Stiles about his wolf and it would just explain away all his strange behavior. Derek would share that side of himself and they would work out compromises for the two of them. Stiles would avoid letting men touch him more than necessary, would be more careful about who he bumped into, even on accident.

 Derek sometimes imagined Stiles giving up his martial arts training, and only working with Derek, letting Derek be the only one to hold Stiles while they trained. He imagined Stiles being excited and asking to run with Derek on the full moon, letting Derek herd him through the woods, letting Derek provide for him in the basest form, catching prey and presenting it to Stiles.

He could practically feel the acceptance from Stiles when imagined himself telling Stiles everything, he had the speech all planned out and had every one of Stiles reactions created and catalogued in his brain, pulling out whichever one fit the mood. The joyous smiles, the Oh! of wonder, the sudden kiss, the small intimate smile that Stiles only made when he was truly pleased, those were his favorite imaginary reactions.

What kept Derek from really doing it, from actually telling Stiles, were the reactions that only ever came out in Derek’s nightmares. He saw Stiles look of horror, the shock and disgust, the anger, and in one particularly brutal nightmare, Stiles hefting a machine gun and mowing down Derek’s family ending with Derek himself, but not before snarling that he couldn’t believe he ever let a monster like Derek ever touch him.

That particular nightmare had ended with him being woken after screaming and nearly sobbing. When Stiles asked what the dream was about, he said it was his family dying again, he never mentioned it was Stiles pulling the trigger.

Derek knew that if Stiles knew that side of him, and accepted him, he would feel more secure, and would stop lashing out at all, but fear had too tight a hold over him. He couldn’t accept that Stiles might reject him, and he would be left alone again, bereft of the family he had claimed for himself.

He truly thought he could handle just hiding it from him for the rest of their lives, no matter how naive that might seem.

 

Stiles never ever yelled, but when Derek’s wolf got control, telling him he needed to claim his mate entirely, to bite, to mark, he would instead try to tell him that he couldn’t come home smelling like other men, or stay out all night studying. The more he tried to pull Stiles closer, the more Stiles tried to pull away, angry that Derek was trying to control him.

Three times in his entire relationship had Stiles shouted, and all three happened in the last week before they broke up for good.

“You can’t tell me what to do! You can’t order me around!” Stiles shouted.

“I can and I will!” he shouted back. He was his mate, he had every right.

“You aren’t my lord and master! You don’t get to control me, to tell me who I can’t see, what I can’t do! I make my own decisions!” Stiles’ voice was running dangerously high, and Derek knew how rarely that happened. In the year and a half they had been together, they had had twelve fights, of which only four had lasted more than a day, and in only two before had Stiles ever raised his voice. He never shouted. Not in anger. Not ever.

Derek couldn’t control himself, no matter how dangerous their fight was getting, or how close to breaking Stiles was, Derek’s true anger was exploding forth for the first time in a long time.

“You can’t control me!” Stiles shouted again, and Derek lost it, he put his fist through a lamp, sending it half way across the room to shatter on the opposite wall.

“I can’t stay here.” Stiles whispered, and he was gone before the last of the ceramic had hit the floor.

 

When Stiles walked out, Derek thought they were just taking a break, time to calm down and regain composure. It took him a full day, and twelve ignored calls before he realized Stiles had truly broken up with him.

Then all hell broke loose.

The loss of a mate was not something he could handle, a mate was a part of him, a part of his wolf, and he couldn’t lose him.

Stiles was all he had.

He started following him places, showing up outside classrooms, waiting for him. He was so in love with him, he couldn’t lose Stiles. He couldn’t lose his life mate; he was a physical part of his heart, of his wolf. 

He failed, however, to realize that what he was doing would be seen as stalking, and it had never even occurred to him that Stiles might be afraid of him, until he finally got the courage to grab his arm and try to force him to talk.

He felt the terror leak out of Stiles and the panic which gripped him when he looked at Derek’s face.

He was so horrified he was the cause that he dropped Stiles' arm and ran away.

Two weeks later Stiles had transferred schools. One day he was there, the next he was gone. All of his things had disappeared, and after another week, Derek couldn’t even catch his scent anymore.

 

With nothing left to hold onto, Derek fell apart. He oscillated between bouts of intense anger where he would break everything in sight, sometimes wolfing out completely and running for days through the woods, killing every animal he came across, or he would ball his eyes out, crying for hours until he could produce no more tears and lied still on the ground waiting to die.

Grief tore at him constantly; he had lost yet another anchor, first his family and now Stiles, everything he had ever held onto, ever loved, left him.

He dropped out of college and somehow ended up living in the woods.

In the two years after his break up, he had struggled to give Stiles up completely, to cut himself off from the part of himself that was bonded to Stiles. He forced himself not to go looking for Stiles, not to try to find him.

He had, at one point, been unable to fight the overwhelming urge to find Stiles and actually hired someone to hack the records and find out which school he transferred to, but Stiles had already graduated, and he couldn’t bring himself to search further. Not if he knew Stiles would run away, not if he had to feel his terror at seeing Derek again. He tramped down the disembodied panicked feeling, and ignored the grief, the loss and confusion that tore at him.

It took two years for that sharp pain of loss turned into a dull ache. It took two years for him to function again, to even catch a grip on his human side. Two years to learn to live half alive, and it was two years before someone found him and took him in, finally helping him heal all over again.

 

Isaiah was nearly thirty and had been an alpha for ten years. When he found Derek wandering through the woods, nearly feral, and completely lost, Isaiah had attacked without warning, and knocked Derek out cold. 

Derek woke up in an abandoned warehouse, lying on an old mattress shoved in the corner of a dilapidated office.

It was the first time he had been in human form for a few weeks, and he was utterly confused as to how he got there.

He sniffed the air, now so used to solely relying on wolf instincts, it didn’t occur to him to call out. He smelled several people in the warehouse, all wolves, and Derek sat straight up, preparing for an attack.

The building smelled inhabited, as if there were people here often, but it didn’t smell like a home. The warehouse was clearly a base, but not where the pack lived. Packs almost always lived together, for protection and comfort. It was why it was so easy for the hunters to pick off almost all of Derek’s family in one fell swoop.

Isaiah wandered in, sitting in a chair on the opposite side of the room, and Derek immediately recognized the man as an alpha, and just barely recognized him as the wolf that had attacked Derek in the woods.

Derek shot upright, changing partially, his hackles rising and he growled at the man sitting across from him. Isaiah didn’t react, just sat in his chair with his arms crossed and stared at Derek, waiting for him to calm down.

Derek didn’t change back, but he stopped growling and instead stalked back and forth in the small room, never taking his eyes from the alpha.

“So you lost your pack?” asked Isaiah, calm and quiet, watching Derek in a detached way, but seemed to care about the answer.

“Sort of.” Derek grumbled, he had lost his pack, a long time ago, but that wasn’t what drove him nearly feral. Derek didn’t feel the need to share that, in as many words, as he was unsure of the man’s intentions.

“So you lost your mate then.” said Isaiah, and it wasn’t a question.

Derek nodded slightly anyway, too morose to really bring himself to care anymore. Reminding himself of Stiles, when he had spent the last two years as an animal trying to forget him, still made Derek crumble a little.

 “You are an omega.” said Isaiah; again it wasn’t a question, though Derek didn’t bother affirming the assertation this time. Isaiah didn’t seem to expect one because he continued, “I have a small, but strong pack here. We are always looking for new members. If you have an interest in staying.” He added eyeing Derek seriously.

Derek stared back at Isaiah, and his immediate reaction was to say no. He was perfectly content to continue running alone in the woods for the rest of his life, he didn’t need a pack.

Derek opened his mouth to tell Isaiah exactly that when the door opened and Derek jumped back, growling at the new threat.

A small girl came in, likely in her early twenties, blonde hair with a reddish tinge, leanly built, but exuded strength. She sent a startled look in Derek’s direction before ignoring him completely and turning to her alpha.

“Lydia, what is it?” Isaiah’s voice was calm but his scent revealed anger at being interrupted and also worry at the girl putting herself in harm’s way by coming in here with an unknown omega.

He also appeared concerned at what would force her to do it.

Lydia swallowed slightly, and Derek watched carefully, though low growls were still spilling out of his throat.

“There is a group of hunters moving into the area. They spotted Boyd while he was on his run. They know we’re here.” she said, not looking away from her alpha as he took in the news.

Isaiah put his face in his hands and swore quietly.

He looked Lydia in the eye, his own now glowing a steady red. “Gather everyone in the warehouse, no one leaves here until we have a plan, and no one goes anywhere alone.”

Lydia nodded and then pulled out her phone as she was leaving, already making calls.

Isaiah turned back to Derek who had again stopped growling as he tried to figure out the very human emotion that was rumbling through his mostly wolf body.

“Either stay and help,” Isaiah said, fatigue and worry showing in his voice, “or leave and get the hell out of dodge.” Isaiah stood up and didn’t wait for a response. He strode out of the room, going in search of Lydia who was still making calls to whatever members of the pack weren’t already present.

Isaiah took a chair in the main room and waited for the last few to arrive before he started talking about a plan for some reconnaissance. Derek listened from the manager’s office, counting the heartbeats, seven, and feeling the strong sense of pack from those in the other room. He could practically smell the trust and the love between the wolves, and especially between the wolves and the alpha. Derek suddenly understood the emotions he had felt when Lydia was in the room.

Jealousy and abandonment.

They were such human emotions he had failed to recognize them, but he was jealous of Lydia’s connection to her alpha, of their pack bond, and he felt abandoned and alone without a pack of his own.

Derek made up his mind and walked out into the main room. He stood awkwardly behind one of the couches.

Everyone in the pack stiffened except for Isaiah, who looked up at Derek and they shared a silent conversation as to what it meant for Derek to be there. Derek decided that he was helping, but it didn’t mean he was going to stay forever. Isaiah nodded, accepting that, and continued talking as if nothing had happened.

“We are splitting up in groups of three around the harbor, which is where they seemed to be positioning themselves. Boyd, Aiden, and Erica, you three will take the west side. Lydia, Ethan, and I will take the east. Derek and Cora, you two will take the high ground and keep an eye out for distress, you join in if anything happens. Remember, this is a reconnaissance mission only, no attacking unless attacked first. Got it? Good. We leave in four hours.” Isaiah stood up and the rest of the pack followed.

Cora took a step forward, clearly about to argue about being paired up with Derek, and the other betas seemed to agree, which didn’t surprise Derek at all.

Isaiah leveled an easy glare at Cora and she stopped in her tracks and nodded.

Derek stared at the girl for a moment, studying her face and tried forcing down the hope that started to claw at his chest.

“Cora?” he asked, his voice coming out more broken than he expected. He wiped a hand over his face, and when it fell it came away covered in dirt. Under the grime he felt the thick beard that was growing accross his face and he wondered if anyone would recognize him anymore.

She looked up at him, confused, staring at his face, trying to see through the crap that covered his features, annoyed at first before turning incredulous.

“Derek?” she asked, and true recognition of her brother relaxed her features into a small smile.

She moved forward as if to hug him and Derek took an involuntary step back. Cora’s smile faltered, but she took a look at her pack and then stepped forward again, wrapping a hand around his bicep and pulling him a few steps away.

“I don’t know what you’ve been through in the last four years, but I know what I have been through. I have a pack and though you are my brother by blood, you and I both know that pack _is_ family, maybe more than blood. I’ll protect them with my life, even if I have to protect them from you, okay?” she looked sad as she searched his face for confirmation, and Derek nodded silently, tears pricking at his eyes.

He was overjoyed to have found his sister, to have found a piece of the pack he had once held so dear, but he hadn’t been human in a long time. He was having a hard time embracing the human aspects of accepting his sister and the wolf only saw her as a member of a pack that wasn’t his. Her scent was far too different from the little girl he had known so well only four years ago.

She sighed deeply and then turned to get a nod from a possibly knowing Isaiah before turning back to Derek to face him head on. “Come on, Mr. Frowny Face,” she said, gesturing him to a back room, “you can sleep in the far corner. The center is for pack only.” Derek raised his eyebrows in surprise, both in the reminder of her childhood nickname for him, and also in her allowance of letting him sleep in the same room as the pack, let alone sleeping with him present at all.

An omega was supposed to be a threat to a pack, someone they wouldn’t drop their guard around, but Isaiah seemed to trust him for whatever reason, and Cora was accepting him despite her threat to protect the pack.

One of the male betas, Boyd, he thought, dragged a mattress from a massive pile over to the far wall, while the others went about pulling the rest to the center and laying them out flush against each other.

Then without another glance in his direction, the pack crashed onto the mattresses and snuggled together in a heap, being warmed by all the other bodies in the pile, while feeling insulated and protected.

The only one who wasn’t present was Isaiah, but he came in a few minutes later and crashed in the center of the people pile, while the others happily moved to accommodate him.

Derek lied down on his mattress in the corner, feeling almost lonelier in the room with the other pack than he ever had in the last two years, alone in the woods. He realized how devoid of love he was without his mate, but also without a pack that could have acted as a bridge of support to lead him back to sanity after Stiles left.

Derek fell asleep pondering how he could let himself become attached to anyone after all the people he had lost. He didn’t think he could lose any more people and survive it. He glanced over at the mass of people heaped on the other mattresses and he thought he saw Cora.

Whatever else happened he wasn’t going to lose the one link to his family he had left.

Derek shut his eyes firm in that resolution to do whatever it took.

 

 When the allotted sleeping time was up, Cora nudged Derek with her foot, jolting him from sleep and causing him to reach out and snatch her leg, his claws already extended and face half wolfed out.

Cora only rolled her eyes, and gently pulled her leg from his grip. “It’s time to go.” she said, and Derek suddenly remembered where he was and why he was here.

He nodded and then rolled off the mattress before following Cora out of the room.

The whole pack was assembled in front of Isaiah in the main room.

“Okay, we are running down to the docks, and then we’ll take places around the perimeter and slowly sweep through towards the center. Stay out of sight, and you know the signal if you see something or need help.” Isaiah looked from face to face; settling briefly on Derek’s as if making sure he was really in this. Derek nodded one and Isaiah smiled slightly in response. “Good luck everyone. Stay safe.”

They all filed out, half shifting, and running on two legs to the docks. As the two groups of three lined up at either end of the docks, Cora and Derek found high ground where they could keep lookout without being seen.

The two groups started their sweeps, slowly moving in to the center, close to where Derek and Cora were positioned.

Hales spent several minutes watching the slow movement of the two groups, but it was becoming increasingly clear there wasn’t much to look at, and they would be there a very long time.

“Tell me about the pack.” Derek asked, trying to fill the silence with a question whose answer he truly wanted to know.

Cora looked at him for a moment before nodding to herself. “Isaiah trusts you or he wouldn’t have put me with you, he would have been here himself.” She met his eyes, “That means a lot."

Derek nodded.

Cora frowned like maybe he still didn't get it. “He could have told you to buzz off when we found out about the hunters, or maybe just killed you when he met you alone and feral in the woods.” Derek flinched slightly at being called feral. For a werewolf, feral meant something more violent than just undomesticated. When a werewolf went feral it attacked without warning or care, it lived solely off of instinct. Derek had tried to completely collapse into his animal side, but he hadn’t been able to entirely shake the anchor to his humanity. “My alpha is good at reading people’s character though, and he seems to think that you are a type of broken that he can fix.”

Derek looked at her in surprise, it hurt that she didn’t trust him solely because he was her brother, but he understood: it was pack over people.

Derek grunted slightly, and in a rash decision, decided to say exactly what kind of broken he was. “I had a mate. He’s gone. Now I’m alone.” He didn’t elaborate, though Cora waited expectantly, and after a while she nodded, realizing that was all she was going to get.

“Boyd is strong and powerful, but he doesn’t talk about his actions, and that gets him in a lot of trouble when the others don’t know why he did something.” Derek nodded, remembering that the dark skinned, linebacker type, had followed orders without question, but was placed with the small blonde girl who he had stood in front of protectively.

“Erica,” Cora continued, “is feisty and quick and prone to strong jabs instead of body smashing like Boyd. Everyone is convinced she and Boyd will end up mating, but no one has the guts to say it to their faces, so we let them pine after each other completely unaware of how in love the other is.” Derek laughed lightly, though it came out as more of an appreciative grunt, but Cora took it as encouragement to keep going.

“Aiden and Ethan are twins, obviously, and are prone to fighting each other, unless someone else tries to fight one of them, in which case they team up and go ham on the opposition.” Derek nodded; Aiden and Ethan hadn’t said much, but they seemed brutal when they thought him an outsider.

“Lydia is cunning and vicious, and she is the best at tracking and at making plans, but she never asks for help, even when she needs it. Isaiah actually relies on her more than most, because he can barely work a GPS let alone figure out a map.”

Derek was surprised by how honest Cora had been, revealing weakness and strengths of her packmates to him, despite the fact he wasn’t pack. For whatever reason, and despite what she said, Cora seemed to trust him too.

Derek was grateful.

“And you?” he asked, trying to see how Cora fit with the pack.

“I keep everyone connected, we let Isaiah deal with our problems, but I am who everyone goes crying to after the unsatisfactory compromise he no doubt comes up with. Isaiah is good at figuring out the answers to problems, but he sucks at consolations.” Derek nodded, and related to Isaiah. He sucked at comforting people.

Derek opened his mouth to say something, when a strangled bird cry was released from somewhere east of them. Cora tensed and immediately set off at a run toward the noise, with Derek hot on her heals.

It was less than a second later that the shot rang out.

Derek and Cora both ran faster, Derek overtaking her, and leading the way to the battle that was now going full blown.

The group of three, Ethan, Lydia, and Isaiah had been ambushed by a group of hunters. Derek and Cora arrived just in time to see a hunter get tackled by Isaiah, his neck snapping quickly. Just as Isaiah rose from the broken body, a hunter twenty feet away lifted his gun with a shout of retaliation, and pulled the trigger, sending a wolf bane laced bullet straight for Isaiah’s heart.

Derek moved without thinking and threw himself in front of Isaiah, taking the bullet in the shoulder, just as Cora ripped into the hunter, sending blood gushing out of his throat and down her arm.

Derek hit the ground with a huff as all the air was knocked out of him. His body spasmed from pain as the bullet burned in his shoulder. He struggled to stay conscious as he watched the rest of the pack join them and eliminate the nine hunters that had been lying in wait at the docks.

When the last hunter hit the ground, and Derek couldn’t smell anymore humans for miles, he let the weariness and the pain overtake him. Blackness slipped around his vision, and he didn’t remember anything more after that.

 

Derek woke up feeling warm, stiff, and strangely different. He opened his eyes to find himself curled between three or four sleeping bodies in the center of the mattress pile at the warehouse. As he focused on the warm feeling, not only of his body, but in his chest, Derek realized why he felt distinctly different as the words Cora spoke earlier came back to him.

 “The center is only for pack.”

Derek understood immediately what he had done and the reaction of the pack. He had risked his own life to save the alpha, and in doing so, had within himself, accepted Isaiah as his alpha. The pack, seeing him save their alpha when they couldn’t, had accepted him return, enough that they were now comfortable wrapping themselves around him in their sleep.

Derek smiled slightly, despite himself, and realized once again the depth of how lonely he had been, and he finally, finally let it go and snuggled deeper into the puppy pile of werewolves that surrounded him, happy and content after having filled the pack sized hole in his chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Derek is healing!
> 
> Also sorry for the weird sibling relationship but in the orginal version Cora's character was Isaiah's sister and had no reason to accept Derek but did anyway, so I was trying to tweak it without changing a ton. Let me know if I should try harder. 
> 
> Okay so you know when everyone writes about the tendon in the neck that Derek is always going after (this is a very common kink) and they say "tendon." This bugs the crap out of me because that is a muscle called the sternocleidomastoid. I did actually look it up, but I can find no evidence that there is a tendon anywhere near that muscle (as in in the same place/same direction because I am sure there are actually tendons nearby) So I wrote muscle and if anyone is confused, that's what I am talking about.
> 
> Also with the christening the apartment thing, after a while I started to think of christening and becoming Christen, and I didn't want to insult anyone for using that term, if I did insult you and your beliefs I apologize and firmly state that was not my intention.
> 
> On that note...
> 
> Has anyone ever thought about the logistics of writing sex? This is my first time doing it and I found it incredibly awkward because I am seriously sitting in my apartment, alone, trying to imagine how two fictional people are going to have sex. I never thought this through before and I really wonder how E.L. James (author of fifty shades) just sat there and wrote all that stuff, I mean, her parents must know about it, can you imagine that conversation at Thanksgiving? "So how's the book writing, E?" "Oh, you know, good, mom, just started writing about how this guy ties this girl up and fucks her into a wall." "Oh really sweetie, that's wonderful."  
> FYI I haven't actually read fifty shades, so I don't know who's the dom and who's the sub, but I digress. 
> 
> Sorry about the Derek angst and his crying in the woods, but I just think that if your life revolved around one person entirely and they just ran off (for a very good reason) you would kind of fall apart. Dude just didn't realize you can't survive attached solely to one person. It doesn't work like that.
> 
> I do not under any circumstance condone Derek's behavior at the beginning (with the anger and post break-up), if you are in a relationship anything like that (someone controlling you) you should leave, rage is also a great indicator of a dangerous relationship. 
> 
> *Spoilers?* (they kind of are, but not really) -this is mostly because people might be worried about abusive!Derek !!!!!!WHICH IS NOT SOMETHING THAT IS A THING!!!!! (this is not a thing, okay people?) NO. JUST NO.  
> I know I personally hate when Derek does something like this in other stories (wolf smolf I don't care about claiming and mating, you be nice to your partner!) and then Stiles is like, oh its cool, our love is more than strong enough for me to forgive you for your dickishness and fall back into our borderline emotionally abusive relationship. I forgive you despite the fact that all you did was apologize and promise not to do it again!  
> This is not that kind of story! I refute all unhealthy relationships and no matter how much I ship two people, if they are unhappy I don't want them together.  
> But expect a happy ending, with a fully intact Sterek, in a healthy relationship because I promised and I will fix all wounds.
> 
> Derek is a dick (sometimes)  
> Equally, wrap it before you tap it. (werewolf or not)  
> And finally: next chapter will have more pack, pack feels, and everyone else that I didn't mention before! I'm super excited to write about different characters interacting who haven't interacted before. Jackson and Aiden and Cora? Erica and Aiden and Cora? and Ethan but he seems more chill to me. 
> 
> I'm going to post a new chapter at least once a week, MAYBE more but I'm moving Decemember 20th and I have finals. My original goal was to finish this before the end of the year, but I might be able to manage before the next semester.


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A pack, a fire, an alpha, a paramour, and some spaghetti with the added benefit of Stiles related angst.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is short because of finals, but you might get another chapter this week because I hate studying and this is far more amusing. 
> 
> I'm trying way harder to make notes short after last post.

Derek had not gone without the trials and tribulations of living with seven distinct and sometimes warring personalities.

There had been fights and standoffs, and the occasional self-inflicted exile from the pack for a few days, but after three years, they were stronger and closer for it.

The pack gave something to Derek that he had been missing ever since he lost his family. Werewolves were meant to live in large packs, and while Stiles was his mate, the two of them alone had never fulfilled the need of pack.

Though Derek felt stronger, happier, and more connected now that he was pack, his mate bond wasn’t entirely gone. Werewolves mate for life, and he had already chosen Stiles and lost him. He would never love anyone like that again, but that didn’t stop him from trying to rebound with his life by dating other people, if only for the physical aspects.

Over the three years he had been pack they had dealt with hunters, witches, a freak tornado, and two opposing packs, but in that time they also had to bury one body.

 

The fire had caught everyone by surprise as it ripped at the walls of Isaiah’s house, lighting up the wall paper, and roaring over the screams of the inhabitants of the house.

Derek started crashing through walls, making a path for the others to follow him out. Isaiah had taken up the rear, herding everyone forward, which was when they realized they were missing someone.

Isaiah cocked his head, listening, until he heard the cries of Derek’s sister trapped somewhere in the basement.

Isaiah and Derek locked eyes, sharing silent and hurried communication before Derek led the rest to safety and Isaiah disappeared deep into the burning house to save Cora.

Once everyone was outside, Derek wasted no time, sprinting back into the flames to search for Cora and Isaiah. When he came to the door to the basement, he heard Cora whimpering on the other side of the door and Isaiah tried to kick it down, but wasn’t strong enough.

Derek immediately smelled the burned flesh. Fire was one of the few things that werewolves had trouble healing from besides wolfsbane.

Without a second glance at Isaiah, Derek lifted his foot, and kicked the door right off its hinges. Cora immediately surged from the spot she had taken further down the stairs, dodged the projectile door, and rushed right into Derek’s arms.

The three of them then began to fight themselves out of the burning house that was falling apart around them.

Beams, pieces of dry wall, and crumbling fixtures, tumbled from the walls and ceilings and Derek, Cora, and Isaiah just barely managed to avoid the biggest of them. When they were twenty feet from the door there was a cacophonous crash, and Cora lurched forward, clinging to Derek’s back, as he spun around and saw Isaiah trapped under a fallen beam.

Any other time, this would have been no problem for either Isaiah or Derek to lift it off him, but both were injured by flames, there was little air to breathe, and the house was coming down around them.

Isaiah and Derek shared another wordless conversation before Derek tossed Cora over his shoulder and sprinted with her outside, leaving Isaiah caught under the beam in the burning house.

The second he was out the door, Derek threw Cora down on the ground and turned to run back up to the house to get to Isaiah.

He made it to the front door before the house gave one massive shudder, and collapsed completely, a fireball exploding out the front door and slamming into Derek full force, sending him back several feet.

It wasn’t the pain of the fireball that had Derek curled up on the ground sobbing, but the sudden wrench and pull inside his chest as their alpha was ripped away, nearly as painful as losing Stiles.

It left only a cold, dry emptiness in its wake.

Derek eventually passed out and woke up in a hospital several days later, the entire pack curled up in his room, sleeping in a pile. He found Cora and Lydia both curled on either side of him, and spotted Ethan, Aiden, Erica, and Boyd all curled up on the floor, either side of the bed. In that moment he felt a sense of fierce protection, that he would do anything to keep them from ever losing a pack member again.

He felt a sudden pull and shift, and an almost tangible connection to the people around him as they stirred in their sleep.

They opened their eyes, one after the other, and turned their heads to look at him, as if they could feel the pull too. Derek felt the sudden urge to share what he was feeling and opened his mouth, letting whatever words spill out.

 “I won’t let anything happen to you again,” he said to all them, “I won’t let anyone touch us ever again. I will protect you to the end, defend you until I die, and I will care for all of you until I’m buried.”

One by one all of the betas looked up at his eyes, nodding once and then showing their throats to Derek in the greatest show of submission a werewolf could give. Derek felt a shift in their position, not physically, but more metaphysically, and then he caught sight of his face in the mirror on the other side of the room. 

An omega had blue eyes, a beta had yellow eyes, and an alpha had red eyes.

Since his family had died, Derek’s wolf eyes had been blue, when he joined Isaiah’s pack, his eyes had turned gold, but when he looked in the mirror now, he saw them glow red for the very first time in his life.

 XXX

It had been three years since Derek joined the pack, and it had been nearly a year since he had become alpha. The change had been just as much of an adjustment as joining had been. Derek had to deal with a lot of emotion from the loss of Isaiah, an acceptance of the duties as protector and pack diplomat, plus learning how to handle the internal disputes between the members.

He relied heavily on Cora to help him with the relationships between pack members, as they all knew how much he sucked at relationships.

He _was_ getting better.

He helped Lydia through her human boyfriend problems. He ordered Ethan and Aiden to pick up a team sport and then he put them on opposing teams to keep them from fighting during pack time. He convinced Erica and Boyd of their attraction for each other, and told them it really was okay for them to be together and that the pack wouldn’t mind.

There was a lot of embarrassment about that because when Erica and Boyd announced it to the pack, everyone groaned and Lydia actually mumbled, “finally.”

The only relationship that Derek wasn’t sure how to deal with was his and Cora’s, he felt guilt at having saved Cora over Isaiah and becoming alpha. He knew how she felt about her pack, and even though he was part of it, he wasn’t sure how she reacted. He also didn’t know how to comfort her about his death because Derek had forced Cora to leave Isaiah behind.

He relied on Cora to act like a co-leader in all the areas that mattered, but when Derek needed to made a decision on something territory related, or something that challenged his leadership, Derek took full control. He was alpha after all, and no matter how awkward that made him feel with Cora, he would never defer to her. Instead Derek chose to view her as a caretaker, an almost den mother, which would be his mate’s position in his pack, but Stiles was gone, and he would never mate again.

Eventually it was Cora that confronted him about his angst. She sat him down, pushing him by the shoulders. She said she loved him, didn’t blame him, and told him he was a good alpha. Then she told him he needed to give her money for pack groceries and they needed a new pack house soon because living in the warehouse wasn’t fun.

Derek gave her money and started looking online for real-estate listings.

 

XXX 

One strange development did occur in the last six months that had Derek questioning a few things about himself.

In early march, Derek had been happy that things seemed to be getting to a normal level after Isaiah dying and Derek surviving being the alpha for so long. They had bought a large house, with a separate bedroom for everyone, with plenty of spares for guests, and they were all now accustomed to living together with Derek as alpha.

So naturally that was when Ethan wandered into the house and announced that he caught the scent of an omega running through the territory.

Derek had been reclined on the couch, enjoying a book, but had dropped it and growled at the news of someone coming into his territory unannounced.

He couldn’t say he was surprised, in fact, in the few months following Isaiah’s death he was surprised no other opposing pack had tried to come in and challenge him and his claim to pack and territory.

“Gather the others,” he growled, “we go confront him now.” Ethan just nodded before dashing out of the room and calling the others over as fast as possible.

When gathered, they set off to search the woods and track the trail starting with where Ethan had caught the scent before.

It took them six hours to finally track down the omega, and when they neared the site, Derek wasn’t prepared for who they would find.

 

The platinum blonde stared down at them from the tree she was perched in, her lips curled back in a soundless growl.

Derek looked back up at her, his own teeth pulled back, revealing long canines that were getting longer by the moment as Derek slowly shifted halfway.

The blonde stilled as Derek flashed his red eyes at her, and though she relaxed her mouth slightly, she continued to glare, “I didn’t mean to come into your territory unannounced, I was chased out of my territory by an opposing pack.” She said it quietly, but her body was thrumming with energy, as she prepared for an attack from Derek, probably not sure how she would be accepted.

“Do you wish harm or public attention to out pack?” he asked coldly, not changing from his half wolfed out state.

“No, I only wish for safety and a place to rest before leaving and trying to find uninhabited territory.” she said. Derek watched her curiously, and wondered why she was an omega when she seemed to be perfectly average for a wolf and not the least bit deranged or solitary.

Instead of asking, Derek tilted his head and thought through the decision he was about to make. He studied the woman for a moment more and then nodded to himself before making a decision. “you may stay in the territory for as long as you like, but if you cause trouble, you will hear from me and my pack.” He thought for a moment and then spoke again, “you also have invitation to stay with us for a few days, if you wish for shelter.”

He could feel the pack’s surprise, but to their credit, they didn’t say anything.

“I will consider it.” The omega woman said, nodding to them from her place still in the tree. Derek nodded back and shifted back to completely human before leading his pack back to the warehouse, leaving a clear trail for the omega to follow later if she chose.

As soon as they were out of earshot of the wolf, Cora grabbed his arm and spun on him angrily. “What do you think you are doing inviting some omega into our home?” she snarled, not for the first time questioning his decisions.

“We aren’t going home, we are going to the warehouse. We will stay there until things stabilize; you know that’s what we do in times of trouble.” Derek said, staring down at her.

“This is a place for the pack, we don’t invite outsiders to stay here.”

Derek sighed tiredly, he didn’t want to deal with this right now, but he didn’t have a choice. “I’m doing what Isaiah would do. What Isaiah did. With me.” he added, trying to get Cora to understand.

Cora seemed to and she nodded, but she didn’t look happy. “Do you sense something good there?” she asked.

“Too soon to tell,” Derek replied honestly, “but she didn’t seem to be the type of person who was an omega by choice, I think she might have lost her pack, much like me.”

The rest of the pack tensed, Derek almost never talked about his past before joining the pack, and though he had opened up about the loss of his family, sharing small anecdotes with Cora, it wasn’t something he talked about lightly. He had also never told them anything about Stiles. All they knew was that he had had a mate and that they were gone. They didn’t know his name. They didn’t even know his gender.

 

It was two days before they saw the omega again and she strode into the warehouse like she didn’t have a care in the world. She introduced herself as Kayla, and she made herself a home in one of the workman rooms of the warehouse, filching a mattress from the pile as her own without asking.

Derek found her impulsive, sometimes rude, extravagant, loud, quirky, and dirty minded. He was well aware how attractive she was, with her slim body, coiled muscles, and platinum blonde hair.

She was also the opposite of Stiles.

Stiles was calming where Kayla put Derek on edge, Stiles was soft where Kayla was shouting, and Stiles would hug where Kayla would punch. They were opposites, and somehow that made Derek feel better about what he did.

After a month of Kayla living in the warehouse, showing no indication of leaving, as well as no indication of joining the pack, Derek had gone into her room with the intention of confronting her. The pack had been angry that they still had to stay in the warehouse instead of going home to what they called the Hale house. Derek walked in prepared to hash it out and get her to fucking commit to something.

It somehow ended up having sex right on the tiled floor.

It was rough and there was little emotion, but it made Derek feel a little less lonely. It acted as a poor substitute for the bond he had with his mate, a hole that his pack could never fill.

It then turned into a regular thing. It was something that Derek had no intention of putting a label on, as he felt no emotional connection to Kayla, and she didn’t seem to feel anything for him, but it wasn’t something that they could hide from the pack. Not with noses like theirs.

Cora cornered him in the office one day, and asked him point blank, “Will you mate with her?”

“No!” Derek spluttered, completely shocked, “I was already mated, I can’t mate again.”    

Cora rolled her eyes, “of course you can stupid, once a mate bond is broken, you can mate again. Wolves may mate for life, but werewolves only mate until death.”

Derek froze for a moment, it had never occurred to him that there was a way for him to mate with someone else after Stiles.

Pack bonds had always seemed like strings connecting him to the others. Strings, that if he pulled, could tug the beta in whatever direction that he chose.

His mate bond, on the other hand, was more like a rope, but the other end of his rope was frayed and dwindled in size until all that remained at the other end was a single thread, and if he pulled on it, the end came with it, with no resistance, like the rope was just dangling out there, connected to nothing.

It was disorienting to tug on the rope because he felt that to the core of his being there should be some resistance, some pull in the other direction. When he tugged he prepared for the resistance and was always left reeling, like when he pulled at something stuck with all his might and it just came loose and he found himself falling backward with the force of a tug and nothing holding onto him.

He thought about it, mating again, about being with someone else for real. Not his half bonded state with Stiles, but a real mate.

It wouldn’t be Kayla, she wasn’t his type, and she was more of a convenience really.

Derek shuddered. For any of that to happen, for him to ever mate again, Stiles would have to die. Derek would never in a million year be okay with that, no matter what happiness mating might have brought him.

It occurred to him that if anything did happen to Stiles, if he did die, Derek would feel it instantly, and whatever semblance of a bond they had, would immediately fall away. He didn’t think he could handle losing him for real, even if he hadn’t seen him in four and a half years. At this point Stiles could be married with kids but it didn’t matter. Derek still couldn’t live in a world where Stiles was dead.

He shook his head and leveled his gaze on Cora in front on him, “I’m not going to mate again, I can’t.

Something in his face or in his voice gave away more than he meant it to, and Cora figured out the one thing Derek had worked so hard to skirt around everyone else.

Derek’s mate was _alive_.

Cora struggled to put all the pieces together, “but you said she died?” she choked out, completely a question despite the statement of the words.

“No,” Derek shook his head sadly, “I said I lost him.”

Cora looked utterly confused, but Derek didn’t want to answer any more questions, so he just walked out of the room, leaving her lost and confused.

They moved back into the Hale house that week.

 XXX

Derek managed another six months without Cora asking about his mate more specifically, though he did get the distinct impression that the other betas knew that his mate was still alive. Cora had told them, but they never brought it up.

Derek continued living in denial and continued his relationship with Kayla, in which they slept together at her place most nights, but they never went on any dates, or even kissed outside of sex.

Derek was thinking about all the things he never told his pack about his mate, all the things he was doing with Kayla to escape: ignoring his pain and his need for connection through this meaningless tryst. He had thought about these things often in the six months since she arrived, but when he woke up and he looked down at the sleeping form, which had curled into his arms, he tried not to breathe in her scent because she smelled of chocolate and raspberries, and nothing like the scent he wanted.

Yet still nothing changed.

Her platinum blonde hair was splayed across the pillow and in his face, which was likely what had woken him up in the first place. He rolled on to his other side, facing away from her.

“Derek?”  Kayla whispered, rolling onto her back so she could look at him, “What are you doing? Why are you awake?”

“I’m sorry, I was just thinking, go back to sleep.” he whispered to Kayla, she didn’t need to know where his thoughts had taken him, she wouldn’t take it lightly.

Kayla nodded sleepily and rolled back over. He listened to her heart until he knew she was asleep before climbing out of bed.

He felt bad thinking about his mate while lying next to Kayla because even if Kayla wanted to, she would never take Stiles’s place, no matter how much time had passed since Stiles had left him.

He was beginning to realize that maybe that was Kayla’s goal. She wanted to be mate to the alpha of the pack, she wanted be the co-leader, she wanted to be Derek’s partner, now and forever.

Derek didn’t want to be alone, but he didn’t want to be with Kayla, not forever, not like that. Besides, he knew she didn’t truly love him; she just wanted the power of the pack, she just didn't care about Derek.

It was possible to mate that way, it was just a matter of claiming and acceptace. You didn't always need love. 

His phone buzzed on the desk, lighting up a portion of the wall. He picked up the phone and read the message from Cora.

_We have news of another pack coming in._

Derek cursed his luck. Foreign packs meant trouble, and his pack wasn’t very big. He had six betas; Cora, Lydia, Erica, Boyd, Ethan, and Aiden, and if the incoming pack was large, they might have some serious trouble defending themselves.

He texted Cora back that they should meet at the warehouse to talk more in depth about the threat, and Cora responded that everyone should be there in an hour.

Derek set the phone down, now twice as stressed as he had been after thinking about Stiles. The pain of him was still there, like an old ache, even though it was now five years since he had last seen him, and despite his pseudo-relationship with Kayla.

He turned to Kayla, still asleep on the bed.

He could never be more than a warm bed for Kayla. She would however fight with him and his pack if need be.

He sighed and poked her gently, trying to rouse her so he could ask if she would come with him to the warehouse. He needed her permission to join them, as he was not her alpha and he couldn’t tell her what to do. That was possibly why he was okay with sleeping with her; he couldn’t force her like he could his betas, not that he would, but it had made the relationship safer to him when he first pulled Kayla into his chest, and felt the power of a embrace that could be pulled away from but wasn’t.

Derek finally got Kayla awake and told her what was going on. Kayla grunted before getting up and digging around for her clothes.

Slightly embarrassed and a little guilty, Derek looked away from the naked Kayla and walked into the bathroom in Kayla’s apartment, she had given up sleeping in the old store room in the warehouse, and went to take a shower.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like Kayla, it was just that he knew that she wasn’t for him. He continued his relationship with her anyway. It was easier to sleep with someone lying next to him. Not that he ever slept well anyway.

Derek and Kayla arrived at the warehouse with most of the other betas already there. Cora, who was swearing like a sailor and was getting people motivated through threats, stood in front of the fold-out table they placed in what was once the manager’s office of the warehouse.

Cora looked up at Kayla and Derek when they walked in, and moved to the side, letting Derek stand at the head of the table, a show of deference to the true alpha.

“What do we know?” he asked, as Kayla moved to stand on his other side, a presumption that she was his right hand despite the fact she still wasn’t pack. She seemed to think they would be mating soon and that earned her the right.

Derek cringed inwardly.

“It’s a small pack and just moved into the edge of our territory.” said Cora, and Derek growled in response. “They did however send someone to get in contact with Ethan, catching him on his run,” Derek’s growl increased in intensity, and Cora hurried to explain, “they didn’t threaten him, they came in all submissive and asked for a meeting with you, with us.” she said.

Derek scrubbed his hands over his face and scowled over the map where a small pink circle highlighted where the offending pack was. He glared at the spot as if willing it to go away and for the pack to just disappear with it.

After another moment, Derek looked up into the expectant faces surrounding him. “Boyd,” he said, picking his most intimidating beta, “go out and tell them that we will accept the meet for tomorrow at noon at the mill. Erica and Aiden, you go with him, but stay out of sight and smelling range, we don’t want to seem threatening just yet.” The betas nodded and then disappeared out of the door.

Derek turned to Kayla, “Do you want to be here for the meeting?” he asked.

“Of course,” Kayla replied her brow furrowing, like she couldn’t figure out why Derek would even ask.

He rubbed his hands over his face again and then turned to the group. “Everyone else get as much sleep as possible, we want as much rest as we can get before they come tomorrow. We need to be ready.”

The pack nodded and moved to the back room in the warehouse where all the mattresses were still piled. They would all be staying there again until the threat died down.

Derek woke up the next morning, wrapped in Cora and Boyd, and smiled slightly at the goofy look on Boyd’s face as Erica snuggled into him on his other side. Kayla was on a mattress on the other side of the room as the center was still for pack only.

Derek crawled out of the puppy pile and headed out to main room. He moved in the manager’s office and set a pot of coffee boiling as he tried to figure out how else they needed to prepare for the opposing pack.

At some point Lydia and Aiden wandered into the room, followed shortly after by Cora and Ethan.

“What’s going on?” Aiden asked, tensing as he took in Derek’s stress and concentration.

“I think we need to prepare some sort of meal in case negotiations go well.” mumbled Derek, “They may expect some sort of breaking bread thing as a sign of our acceptance and sincerity.”

Lydia nodded as she seemed to already be planning out how they would do it. “We are meeting them at the old mill, right? Neutral ground? I think there is an old table set in there that we could use as a dining table. We can make it at the Hale house and then move it to the mill to eat.”

Derek nodded in agreement. They had four hours to get all of this done before the other pack arrived, so Derek, Erica, Boyd, and Cora went out to buy groceries in town and take it to the house while Ethan, Aiden, and Lydia all prepared the mill, cleaning up the old cobwebs and making sure they had multiple escape routes if things went sideways.

Derek wondered through the store with the three betas, while they argued about what to make and what would be most appropriate. There was even a brief conversation about if the pack was vegan or vegetarian. The last two options were quickly shut down as it was next to impossible for a werewolf to go without meat for any length of time. The discussion quickly turned into what sort of meal they could make with red meat and if steak was too obvious or too expensive.

They settled on spaghetti with extra meat sauce, and started collecting other ingredients for side dishes, and enough noodles to feed the eight of their group plus another ten, as they weren’t sure exactly how big the other pack was, despite reports of being small.

Derek walked out of the grocery store, carrying most of the bags, and waited for the others to join him.

While he waited he studied the people passing across the street.

Derek froze as a face caught his eye and he watched a pale brunette come out of the store across the street. He paused on the sidewalk outside, as if waiting for something, and Derek gazed at his face.

It had to be a guy that looked like him because the real one had fled the state to get away from Derek.

 He wouldn’t come back, not ever.

But as Derek stared at the man across the street, the man looked up as if he felt someone looking at him and their eyes met.

Stiles stared back at him from across the street, too stunned to move and his frozen posture was exactly what snapped Derek to action. He had to get away from Stiles, to let him feel safe, to tell Stiles he hadn’t been following him, that this had been a chance encounter.

That Derek wasn’t a threat.

Derek sprinted down the street away from Stiles, still carrying the grocery bags, and he could feel his own terror at having seen Stiles again, his own fear of continued rejection, and it was sending him farther and faster away from Stiles.

“Derek!” someone called, and Derek sped up, trying to escape the history that was chasing him. He made it another block before he realized he wasn’t losing his tail and that none of the voices shouting at him belonged to Stiles.

He stopped and faced the pack that had followed him from the grocery store.

“Derek, what’s wrong? Who was he?” the pack could obviously feel his terror and he could feel their tension and fear rumbling back through their connection.

“That was Stiles,” he whispered in a small voice.

“Stiles?” asked Cora, and the others looked equally confused.

“Stiles.” Derek repeated, “My mate.” He practically choked on the word mate and his pack’s reactions were putting him more on edge.

Cora was shocked, while Erica was seething, and Boyd stayed calm but shifted his weight as if he was prepared to fight for Derek no matter the case.

“What… what happened after I left?” he asked them quietly, almost terrified of the answer, but he had to know.

Erica hesitated but she blurted out the truth as fast as she could, “he was frozen and obviously freaking out, and then some others came out of the store after him, and some guy put his arm around Stiles’ shoulders and he asked if Stiles was alright, and he said he was. Then they stood there a moment more before Stiles let the guy walk him away. They went the opposite direction to you.” Erica’s words tumbled out quickly before she added, “But when he said he was alright. I was listening to his heartbeat. He lied.”

Derek froze, “Did he smell…” he wasn’t sure what he wanted to ask, did he smell afraid? Terrorized? Sad? Did Stiles miss him?

Derek shook the last thought out of his head, of course he didn’t miss Derek, he had stalked Stiles and terrorized him; Stiles was terrified of him. Stiles could never have missed him.

Erica shook her head, “the wind was going in the opposite direction; I couldn’t catch a scent from that far away.”

Derek looked to Cora, she had the best nose, “I didn’t even look, I chased after you right away.” she said.

Derek nodded, knowing it was for the best. It was easier pretending that maybe Stiles was no longer afraid of him; maybe he had gotten over him and was simply pitying Derek. He could take Stiles’ pitying over hating him or fearing him.

He knew without a doubt he had made the right decision in running away, not only for Stiles’ peace of mind, but for his own, he didn’t think that he could be that close to Stiles again and not try to claim him. When his wolf saw him, it had howled with joy, pushing him to go to Stiles and to embrace him, to hold him close until Stiles accepted him. Until their mating was complete.

“Let’s go back to the house.” Derek choked on his words, but his pack was more than willing to ignore it. They had all started seething, even if they didn’t know the circumstance. It was clear they just hated that Derek’s mate had abandoned him. All three looked ready to go find Stiles and rip him to shreds.

Derek was touched, but he didn’t deserve it.

Cora moved to his side, grabbing his hand in hers, Erica moved to the other side and threaded her arm around his. Boyd stood behind him, crowding close, and protecting his back. It was pack behavior, protecting the injured member, only bolstered by the fact it was their alpha.

Derek leaned into their touches, reveling in the protection and safety of the pack, and started ignoring the pain of his encounter.

The four of them walked back with their groceries to the Hale house and spent the rest of their time cooking with the occasional attempts at levity from the three betas.

Derek stayed mostly quiet and struggled not to think about Stiles. He tried not to wonder why he was here, why he was back, and he tried not to think about who he was with.

He did briefly wonder that if Stiles married a human, if the two of them were mated in a human sense, would Derek and Stiles’ bond be broken? He thought that if Stiles attached himself to someone else, and they did the same for him, wouldn’t that break Derek’s connection?

Derek wasn’t sure about anything, but the thought of losing his connection to Stiles forever left him more cold and empty than their mutilated bond ever had.

He screwed his eyes shut and pretended that he had never had that thought. He needed to be rid of Stiles for good, for the well-being of the pack, as well as for his own good.

“Do we take it to the distillery?” Erica asked, gesturing to the massive pot of spaghetti they had spent the last hour and a half preparing.

“No, we’ll keep it at the mill.” mumbled Derek, drawn from his thoughts. They always used the mill for meetings with other packs; it was neutral territory, it didn’t smell like their home like the warehouse sort of did.  Opposing packs didn’t feel on edge like they were trespassing. Because it smelled faintly of blood from previous pack encounters that hadn’t gone so well, it gave the air of power to his pack, that they could protect themselves despite their lesser numbers.

While Erica was walking past she bumped Derek, just to touch his arm. Boyd came around the other side, grabbing the spaghetti from the counter and letting his side graze Derek. Cora laughed and mused Derek’s hair, being outright tactile.

Derek had never been happier to be in a pack in his entire life.

“Let’s go.” Derek said, leading the way out of the house. He had an opposing pack to meet, and he needed his strong pack mates to stand with him.

He also needed to pretend Stiles wasn’t around or Derek could screw up everything.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm setting up for the beginning of plot and I know there wasn't a lot of pack interaction, but that's huge in the next chapter. 
> 
> I'm assuming you are picking up what I am putting down (I'm sorry for saying that) but if you aren't I thought I wasn't being subtle with the foreshadowing of the last line.


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of Spaghetti and pack meets, omegas, and stress. With the joys that come with the reappearance of Stiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am a lying liar who lies. I totally said this chapter would be heavy on pack interactions and it isn't, but it is for sure in the next one!  
> I promise.  
> I swear this time.  
> Yeah....
> 
> No but seriously, lots more pack in the next one, this is just more set up for plot and some lovely Stiles-centric angst. 
> 
> Note that some of the tags have changed due to some inability on my part to remember who the hell I paired up in this story so I apologize for missing the Derek/OFC thing.

They moved the spaghetti to a back room in the mill. The scent was carefully hidden from the other pack so it wouldn’t appear presumptuous if they turned out to be unfriendly.

Derek collected the pack in front of him in the mill, giving them a pep talk in the final moments before the other pack’s arrival.

“We have done this plenty of times before, just remember, don’t react to what they do or what you see. Also try not to appear threatening unless we are threatened first. The initial pack meet is a time for only the alphas to converse. Speak only when spoken to, but know that direct acknowledgement of a beta is insulting and threatening to the other alpha, so if he talks to you, he is either hostile or stupid.”

Derek looked at his betas one more time, making sure to make eye contact with everyone. “We are going to be fine.”

The betas seemed to take the reassurance well and lined up and spread out, forming a loose circle, positions based on rank in the pack. Cora stood at his left side, as she was technically his second in command.

Only a mate would stand on his right.

The rest spread out in their lines behind him.

“Ethan,” Derek said, looking back at him. “Take a position on the roof across the road. Watch and make sure that nothing goes amiss. But remember, if I call you back you must come, no matter what.”

Ethan nodded and sprinted out of the building, heading for the best vantage point of the mill.

Derek heard Kayla arrive before he heard her, but it stressed him rather than comforted him, and he understood the need to end the relationship sooner rather than later.

“Kayla.” He said simply when she walked through the door, calm as can be.

“Derek.” She said sweetly, pursing her lips and striding towards him.

“You shouldn’t be here.” Kayla knew that they were meeting the other pack and presence of an unaligned omega could spell trouble for any alliance or truce that he would consider trying to make. It was fine if she helped in general, or even if she was around later, but the first official meet was for pack only.

Kayla just rolled her eyes. “I may be an omega, but this is my territory too, I have every right to be here.”

Derek couldn’t argue with her because she was right, he had given her permission to settle here, and as an independent party, she had every right to ensure that the decisions made here wouldn’t affect her.

Derek simply sighed, and Kayla puffed up, all excited and she flounced over and stood on Derek’s right side, the side of a companion. She also stood in line with him, not behind him like the rest of the pack, including Cora, in a show of deference.

It put Derek on edge, like she was challenging him, but considering she wasn’t pack, he had no right to tell her otherwise.

He let it go without comment.

It was another fifteen minutes before they heard the tell-tale signs of another pack arriving. He heard the slapping of feet as the other pack ran the rest of the way to the mill and the quickening of heartbeats as they neared the door.

The heavy metal gate swung open on the opposite side of the room, and his pack, as well as Derek, tensed and prepared for the new wolves.

The other alpha was an average sized man, brown hair slicked back, a pointed nose, a cleft chin, and eyes that were already glowing red.

He came in expecting a challenge.

He was tense, shoulders pushed up, and claws already out. Despite his hostile demeanor, he looked tired and travel worn, unshaved hair covering the lower half of his face, and if the smell was anything to indicate it, he had gone several days without a shower.

Seeing how worried the alpha was of his pack’s reception actually made Derek a little calmer, they had clearly come here out of necessity, not out of lust for power or land.

Derek took his time studying the rest of the pack. They were a small grouping: four men and one woman, not including the alpha. They looked weary and on edge. They were constantly glancing around, looking for danger in every dark corner.

The scent of desperation and despair hung on every single one of them. They seemed tired of running from whatever had forced them here.

Derek made the split decision that should everything go well in the meeting, if they didn’t outright threaten his territory or his pack, he would let them stay for as long as they didn’t cause trouble.

Derek stepped forward slowly, hands raised, letting them see he meant no harm, before he let his eyes bleed red with his alpha power. “I am Derek, alpha of this pack and this territory. We are fewer but strong and have fought and will fight to keep our home free of danger.”

“I am Peter, alpha of this pack, and no territory. We are sorry Alpha Derek, to have come here without permission, we meant no disrespect, and seek nothing from you but a respite from the running we have done for the past several months.”

Derek nodded at Peter, pleased that they didn’t seem to mean him and his pack harm, though he was bothered that there was something chasing them that would force a pack of werewolves to run for months.

He studied the man a moment more, there was something familiar about him, about the way he carried himself if not his features.

Cora gasped behind him and the other alpha tensed, threatened that a beta was stepping out of line by making noise.

Derek flinched too, but it was Peter’s reaction, puffing out his chest and baring his teeth, that snapped everything into place.

“Peter? Peter Hale?” Derek asked, his voice wearing thin with flummoxed hope. Derek felt his own pack’s energy thrum through their bond, but their emotions were mixed. Surprise, confusion, worry, and happiness were the strongest contenders.

“Yes?” Peter bit out questioningly. He glared at Derek and Derek saw little of the uncle he had one known and loved.

“I’m Derek Hale and behind me is my sister Cora.” Derek was keeping it formal as he was unsure of his uncle, the man had been pushed too far by something and Derek wasn’t risking it.

“My… My niece and nephew?” Peter asked. He didn’t seem excited or happy, he looked more calculating.

“Yes.” Derek confirmed, watching Peter and his pack.

The pack seemed heartened by the news, like they had more hope. Peter just continued to stare, studying Derek and Cora’s faces like he was trying to double check.

Eventually Peter nodded.

“I’m glad you survived.” Peter said. His voice indicated no inflection.

Derek masked his own emotions. Uncle or not, this was still an opposing alpha and he needed to protect his new pack, even if it was from his blood relatives.

He now more than ever understood Cora’s viewpoint. When Derek had first arrived he no doubt had looked as bad as his uncle did now.

“What was it that forced you from your territory?” asked Derek, fearful of what danger they might have led to his pack.

Peter paused, looking for the right words, and as he composed himself, Derek studied the pack behind him. They looked unusually tense, more than was required of the situation especially with their visible tentative hope at the familial relation.

They kept staring at the doors, both the one behind them and the one on the other side of the room, behind Derek’s pack.

Even though they weren’t Derek’s responsibility, he felt the sudden need to find out what was bothering them and to comfort them.

Peter only just seemed to realize something was wrong with his pack and actually had to look behind him to see what it was. That was something that Derek would never have to do as he instinctually understood when his pack felt strong emotion.

Peter was not a strong alpha, but he had clearly been with the pack members for a long time because he commenced a silent conversation with the members of his pack before turning back to face Derek.

“Do you have another wolf outside?” Peter asked, looking Derek in the eye, almost challenging him to lie to him.

“Yes.” Derek responded truthfully. If he hid Ethan’ existence and the other pack found out later, it was reason to undermine any truce or alliance to ever be set up between the two packs.

“Bring him in.”

It technically wasn’t a request, but it was enough of a question that Derek could have chosen to ignore it if he saw fit.

“Ethan.” He whispered, lightly tugging on the connection from alpha to beta, and he felt Ethan’ immediate response as he hurried back to the mill.

Derek studied the other pack, wondering how they had known there was another pack member out there. He wondered if one of them had a heightened sense of smelling or hearing.

Though he didn’t think there would be any outward indication of it, he looked anyway.

After a few minutes of terse silence, the door behind him opened and closed, and he sensed Ethan enter the room and take his place at the back of the pack.

The other pack remained on edge, muscles tense, still watching the doors. There were another few minutes of silence before Peter stepped forward and looked Derek in the eye, “Are there any other pack members out there?”

“No,” Derek answered truthfully again, but it didn’t seem to appease the other pack.

Derek stood his ground, watching them carefully, not sure of what they were thinking of doing when he heard the door open behind him.

He flinched and took careful stock of his pack.

 They were all present.

There was no one who should be walking through the doors right now. Derek did notice out of the corner of his eye that as his own pack tensed at the intrusion of the door opener, the other pack visibly relaxed.

Derek turned to look at the person walking towards them and saw the last person he ever expected to see here.

Stiles moved across the room at a steady pace, moving quickly, but not enough to be frenzied.

Derek stared at him, trying to make desperate connections. He looked at the other pack and their obvious relief at his arrival and he started to understand who Stiles was to them.

It was rare for humans to be in wolf packs, but it wasn’t unheard of. Humans were strong and smart, but they were more fragile. They were often seriously hurt, sometimes terminally, and they rarely lasted long.

By the time that Derek had processed that, and had just started to get worried for Stiles’ safety, the air from the closing door behind Stiles wafted his scent towards Derek, and he took a whiff without thinking.

It hit him hard: citrus and spice and mate wafting toward him, warm, sweet and intoxicating. It was so strong, stronger than he ever remembered after all this time apart. It had been five years since he had been near Stiles, and the scent of him was headier than he ever remembered.

As shocked as he was that Stiles was here, he was even more shocked at what he smelled. Wolf. Stiles didn’t just smell like he was pack, he smelled like he was a werewolf.

Derek stood ramrod straight as he tried to process this. Sometime, in the last five years since Stiles had left him, someone had turned Stiles into a wolf.

A myriad of emotions came barreling through Derek as he tried to process how he felt. Eventually he decided on enraged. Someone had taken his mate and turned him into the very thing Derek had been protecting him from all those years ago. Derek had done everything in his power to keep Stiles from the truth about werewolves and now someone had gone and thrown him in the center of it in a completely nonreversible way.

All this blew through Derek's mind in less than ten seconds before he remembered where he was and what he was doing. He was in the middle of a pack meet, and if he let his emotions have free reign he could give more away than he wanted.

He could already feel his pack reacting to it, half the pack knew who Stiles was, and the other half was rapidly figuring it out. They were angry and annoyed and Cora was practically bubbling with rage.

Derek threw up a wall around his emotions and turned back to face the other alpha, hoping his pack wasn't broadcasting to everyone else.

Peter was watching Stiles, just like the rest of the other pack, and didn’t seem to have noticed Derek and his pack’s minor breakdown.

Stiles made his way to the other side of the room and came to stand just next to the alpha, slightly behind him on the right hand side.

While Derek tensed at the placement, Peter seemed to preen at the decision on Stiles’ part, making Derek realize that they weren’t actually mated.

 It didn’t make him feel any better.

“My pack.” said Peter, waving his hand behind him, “my betas; Isaac, Allison, Danny, Scott, and Jackson.” He looked at Stiles, and Stiles looked at him, giving him some sort of reassurance. “And this is Stiles.” He said, indicating him with another wave of his hands. Stiles nodded to them, but didn’t say a word because only the alphas were to speak at a meeting like this.

Derek flinched because Peter had made a point of not including Stiles as a beta, marking him as something else.

Derek tried listening to Stiles’ heartbeat, but it was muffled, nearly hidden, and Derek couldn’t pick out the individual beats. He gained no information there to Stiles’ emotional state, only the knowledge that the beat was there.

 He involuntarily took in Stiles’ scent again, now focusing on his emotion. When he breathed in the scent, all he smelled was calm, thick and comforting, and he realized why the rest of Stiles’ pack was so in tune to him. Just by smelling Stiles for a single breath, he immediately felt more sedate and less on edge about everything and almost missed the expectant expression on Peter’s face.

“This is my pack.” Derek said, indicating the people behind him, much as Peter had only a moment ago. “These are my betas; Cora, Boyd, Erica, Ethan, Lydia, and Aiden. And this,” Derek paused looking at Kayla, unsure if he should introduce her as an omega or just leave the connection undefined. “This is Kayla,” he said going for nonchalant and not mentioning that she wasn’t actually in his pack.

The scent of calm suddenly got thicker and filled the air, almost instantly slowing his heartbeat and Derek almost had to fight to stay focused.

Peter nodded his acceptance of the pack and Derek made a point of not looking at Stiles. It was not only to keep himself from gauging Stiles’ reaction to Kayla, as he surely smelled Kayla’s scent on Derek and vice versa, but also because he wanted nothing more than to reach out and touch him.

To do that would spell war for both packs and Derek couldn’t afford it.

Peter looked Derek in the eyes, and Derek willed away any thoughts of Stiles, though it was hard with him standing just eight feet away. “Do you accept our presence in your territory?” Peter asked, and Derek knew he was asking for acceptance and a place to stay for a few days or weeks. He half hoped it was weeks so he could be around Stiles a little longer.

He hated that he wanted that.

“Yes, I currently accept your pack into my territory.” said Derek, the phrasing giving just enough leeway that if they acted out against him, he had every right to retaliate.

Peter nodded, clearly receiving the meaning, “Is there a specific place you would like us to stay while we are here?” he asked.

Derek knew that in some territories, the visiting pack was allowed to stay where they pleased, but other places packs were confined to certain areas where they were sure not to cause trouble.

“You may stay wherever you choose, however, we have a space already set up for the express purpose of housing you. It isn’t much, but the distillery is far from prying eyes and you should be able to come and go as you please.”

Peter nodded, “we accept your housing and ask only for directions there.”

Derek nodded back, pleased that the initial meet had gone well though he was still tentative about his uncle and anxious to be out of Stiles’ presence before Derek did something he regretted.

“I’ll take you.” Kayla said, stepping forward past Derek as if it was nothing.

Everyone in the room flinched, the other pack with lazer focus on Kayla, now clearly scenting that she wasn’t pack, and the tension was almost enough to choke on.

“You dare bring an omega into our presence? Into a pack meet?” snarled Peter, already half shifted.

Derek watched in a detached curiosity as the betas all moved to surround Stiles, almost like they were trying to protect him.

Derek snapped back and started frantically searching for something to say, something to defuse the room, but he knew he had made a mistake letting Kayla in on this; she wasn’t pack even if she did share this territory.

He decided to tell them just that. “Kayla shares this territory with us. She has every right to be at a meeting concerning another pack moving in.” He told them as calmly as possible.

“You purposely misled us, you had us believing she was part of your pack, your shared scent was more than enough to indicate it! You should have announced that she was an omega as soon as we walked into the room.” Peter’s words were jumbled by the fangs growing out of his mouth and Derek worried at his uncle’s reaction. Was he unhinged?

“You’re right,” Derek apologized.

This barely seemed to placate Peter as he continued to growl in Kayla’s general direction. “We don’t take well to omegas.” he snarled.

Derek was just trying to come up with a retort that would defend Kayla without starting a feud when Stiles stepped forward from behind the betas that had surrounded him and put a hand on Peter’s shoulder.

Peter appeared to relax at the touch, losing some of his tension. Stiles whispered something so fast and quiet Derek couldn’t hear what he said, but Peter sent a nasty glare in Kayla’s direction, and Derek could guess what it was about.

Stiles continued his whisperings until Peter seemed to wilt and the tension left completely, leaving him almost apologetic.

“I’m sorry for my behavior, perhaps I acted overly rash.” said Peter, still maintaining the strength of alpha in his tone, despite his weakening words. Derek stared at Stiles' hand which was still placed on Peter's shoulder.

“We simply have an unfortunate history with a certain few omegas.” Peter explained.

Derek watched as the betas took instinctual steps toward Stiles and Peter had moved so he was in between Kayla and Stiles. Stiles seemed neither amused nor comforted by the behavior, but he didn’t say anything, and all Derek could smell off of him was his constant and unyielding calm.

“I can send a beta with you to the distillery, to help you find your way.” he said calmly.

 “If you still wish to stay here.” he added as an afterthought.

Peter took a moment to refocus himself, “yes we will accept the direction to the distillery.” and Derek resisted the urge to let out a sigh of relief.

“I’ll send Aiden with you to lead the way.” He gestured to Aiden who walked out from behind him to stand next to him, but still a half step back.

Aiden was built and a little threatening, but Derek didn’t want to send some of his more unassuming members, like Lydia and Cora, because while they were great fighters, he didn’t like the look of his uncle and definitely did not like the glances Peter had sent both women. Derek thought Aiden would be best if the other pack decided to turn on him.

Aiden led the way, carefully skirting the other alpha on his way out of the door.

When they had all left the building and were out of ear shot, Derek let out a sigh of relief.

“That was… eventful.” mumbled Cora from his left and several of the others chuckled nervously in response.

“I never expected our uncle.” Derek stated bluntly.

“Neither did I. He didn’t seem like the Uncle Peter I remember.” Cora said.

“Neither you nor I are anything like the people we were before. Peter seems as bad off as I was when I first came here. I don’t trust him, but I’m not sure he is a threat.” Derek said.

Derek ran a hand over his face and sighed before turning to Kayla, “For the time being it is probably best if you stay as far as possible from the other pack and from us while we are meeting with them. They apparently have issues with omegas, and we don’t need any more reasons for this to go sour.”

Kayla looked ready to argue, but Derek flashed his red alpha eyes at her. Though they wouldn’t necessarily work because she was an omega, she deflated anyway. “Fine.” she mumbled, and then strutted out of the mill without another glance back.

Derek scrubbed his face with his hands and turned back to face his pack.

“Uh, Derek?”

“Yes Erica?”

“We never offered them the spaghetti.”

Derek groaned again and then just walked away, too stressed and emotionally confused to deal with diplomacy right now.

“I’m going for a run. Stay out of trouble while I am gone. We will deal with the other pack and the spaghetti when I get back.” With that Derek walked out the doors and broke into a run when he hit the tree line.

Derek ran as fast as his two legs would carry him while stripping his clothes. Once he was in nothing but boxers, he shifted into a wolf and ran on all four legs, letting the smell of prey pick his direction.

Derek ran for hours and let the smells of the forest comfort him.

While in his four-legged form, his wolf knew exactly what he should do, in the simplest terms of the wolf. He should go out and grab his mate, show Stiles his devotion and his ability to protect and provide for him, and then get him to come back to Derek.

The fact that Stiles was in another pack didn’t faze the wolf at all, Stiles was his mate before he was in that pack. Naturally he would leave them for Derek.

To his wolf, everything was simple, everything made sense, and his wolf hated his human side for trying to oppress its feelings.

When Derek was content he had run himself ragged, he moved back to where he had tossed his clothes and changed back to a human. He dressed quickly and thought over his options in a more human way.

Stiles hadn’t seemed scared of him; he was utterly calm during the entire meeting. Did that mean he forgave him? Or that he was simply confident in his and his pack’s ability to protect him from Derek?

Derek also needed to take into account the way Peter had acted when Stiles stood next to him, when Stiles had talked him down from his enraged rant, and when Peter thought Kayla was a threat. Peter had puffed up every time, and his intentions toward Stiles were more than clear, Derek just couldn’t tell if Stiles reciprocated.

Derek didn’t know anything about Stiles’ pack, or Stiles’ wolf, and Derek had to think of his own pack. Derek didn’t think his pack would mind the addition of Stiles, likely with only minor hissy-fits after a thorough explaination of what had really happened, but Stiles’ pack probably wouldn’t take the loss too kindly. Derek had seen how they had tried to protect Stiles when they thought he was in danger, how on edge they were before he came in, and how they relaxed when Stiles came into the room. The pack was obviously dependent on him.

Could they combine packs?

Derek stopped, he was getting ahead of himself. Derek didn’t even know if Stiles liked him back. Besides, mating would require Stiles accept Derek for life, would Stiles ever even consider it?

Oh my God, Derek sounded like a middle schooler. Did Stiles like him back? Should Derek pass him a note in Algebra with a check yes or no box?

Derek shook his head and focused on the immediate issues. Derek knew too little about the situation, so he decided to play it safe and just avoid contacting Stiles directly until he had more of an indication of his feelings.

Derek trekked back to the mill where his wolves were still hanging out. He walked right up to the group and started giving orders.

“We are going to drop off the food to the other pack as a gesture of good will. Cora, as my second in command, you should do it, plus Peter might take better to his niece. Boyd, go with her to look intimidating, though only an idiot wouldn’t know that the female wolf is the bigger threat. While you are there, give them directions to the warehouse, as well as a map of the town. Invite the alpha and his pack over to the warehouse to discuss what has been chasing them and the threat it poses.” Derek nodded to himself trying to think of anything else when a thought occurred to him. “Cora, don’t threaten Stiles, it’s not his fault and the other pack wouldn’t take it too kindly.”

Cora looked like she was about to argue, but Derek glared at her and growled, low and menacing. She shut her mouth and nodded annoyed assent.

“Go.” He said, and Cora and Boyd went to the back room to grab the food. “Everybody else, go where you please, but be back at the warehouse by eight tonight.”

Everyone went their separate ways and Derek went back to the warehouse for a few hours sleep before they had to strategize about the other pack.

 

XXX

Everyone, including Cora and Boyd, arrived back at the warehouse at eight to discuss what they had seen at the meet.

“I just want to start by saying that it was Stiles who accepted the food. Peter was nowhere in sight. Also the betas appeared in low spirits by the lack of bedding they still had after their travels. When we were leaving, we heard Stiles promise to get them some tomorrow.” said Cora, looking at Derek like the information meant something.

“What?” he asked, knowing he could hardly decipher Cora’s complex looks.

“Alpha Peter is coming over with his pack tomorrow to go over the history of their pack and what is chasing them. Stiles isn’t coming. From how the betas acted, I don’t think Peter knows that yet.”

“If they are mates, wouldn’t he know it instinctually?” asked Aiden.

Lydia laughed, “They are _not_ mates. Stiles is clearly the pack matriarch, but they aren’t mated.”

“How do you know?” asked Boyd.

“They didn’t seem natural together, I mean, for one, Peter puffed up when Stiles deferred to him after his initial entry, and if they were mated that would be an automatic, not a surprise. Plus, Stiles body language was all wrong for someone who is mated or even in a relationship. He never leaned toward Peter, never showed him any favor in his movement. Peter may be alpha to him, but nothing more.” Lydia rattled observations off like it was obvious, but Derek had been watching closely and he hadn’t seen nearly as much that indicated that they weren’t together, that they weren’t mated.

“Plus did you see how the pack reacted?” asked Ethan, “When he puffed up, one of them rolled their eyes. Also, every time he made a gesture or spoke about Stiles, especially when he insinuated that they were together, his pack all leaned away from him, tensing towards Stiles like they wanted to protect him from Peter.”

“Why didn’t Stiles react then?” asked Boyd.

“You know, I think Stiles is a soother.” responded Lydia as if that answered everything.

“What’s a soother?” Erica asked, and Derek was glad because he didn’t know what it was either, but didn’t want to say anything.

Lydia smiled, “A soother is a wolf that controls emotions. They can control their own, exuding whatever emotion they want to, and sometimes being able to force it on others. They are contingent on their packs emotions and if one of the pack members is out of whack, so are they until it is fixed. Soothers are fantastic pack members because they will do almost anything to maintain stability for the pack. They are protectors, healers, counselors, and whatever the hell else they need to be to take care of their pack. in return the pack protects the soother as best they can. Soothers are rare, but people say you can tell if someone is going to be a soother as a wolf based on how they act as a human.”

Derek knew what they meant, he remembered how hard it was for Stiles not to help someone in need.

“Soothers have an incredibly hard time leaving people and will only do it when the truly believe they can’t help, or if there is a bigger threat to another part of the pack.” whispered Cora, and Derek immediately understood the insinuation. Stiles had believed he couldn’t help Derek anymore and he had left.

Derek had felt more settled after meeting Stiles. They had had some rough spots; after accepting his wolf, the occasional stressed moment during finals, and some mild flares when they moved in together. The thing was, it hadn’t gotten _really_ bad again until he had accepted Stiles as his mate. Suddenly he hadn’t been able to control the urge to claim Stiles and separate him from the world, and when Stiles had fought it, Derek had let his anger out on him.

It was no wonder Stiles thought Derek was beyond fixing; Stiles probably had no idea that anything was causing the most recent flare and just assumed Derek was too angry a person to fix.

“Do you think Peter turned Stiles because he knew he might be a soother?” asked Ethan, clearly trying to steer the conversation into less emotionally frought waters.

Derek took this question, “No, Peter is too weak an alpha to pick up on things like that, and it’s doubtful he turned any of the members of his pack. A strong alpha has no problem taking complete control of his pack, but a weak one may only ever gain control of the members he turns. Peter didn't realize the reactions of his pack members and he can’t read their distrust of his ability to lead and protect them. Did you see how on edge they were when Stiles wasn’t in the room? Soother or not, a good alpha would have been able to sense their distress immediately and been able to calm them. It took Peter a good few minutes to notice and even then he had to look around to figure out what was wrong.”

“What about this threat that is chasing them? Do we want to help them with it, or do we let them take care of it themselves?” asked Boyd.

“We will have to see the extent of it tomorrow. For now we need to prepare for the other pack coming here. It shows good faith to accept them into our den and we need to keep positive relations with them unless we have good reason to reject them.” said Derek. “I want you guys to collect as much seating as possible for the main room. When they come tomorrow, I will take Peter into the office and strategize, but I want you guys to bond with the rest of their pack, try and find out what things are like. We need to know more about their thought processes behind coming here.”

The others nodded in response, and Derek sent them on their way.

He wandered into the office and started cleaning it up, pushing papers into a neat pile, and laying out the large map of his territory, on top of the state map, on top of the slightly larger tri-state map.

Derek worried about how he would act with the other pack. Normally it wouldn’t be a problem, Derek was good at negotiations and peace talks, but these weren’t normal circumstances. With Stiles around, he found himself not thinking clearly, he found himself drawn to Stiles even if he knew he was supposed to be staying away. 

How would he face Peter with a straight face? How would he sit there and try not to lay claim over Stiles, fight Peter for the right to his own pack?

Derek knew it would never work, he could never take Stiles from his pack, they were too greatly attached to him. He also couldn’t just take over the other pack, no matter how weak an alpha Peter was because if Stiles really was a soother, any threat to his pack or his alpha and Stiles would never forgive him.

Derek shook his head, what was he thinking? Stiles didn’t want him, how could he keep losing sight of that? The fact that Derek was bonded to him, made him feel like Stiles couldn’t possibly deny him when Derek knew deep down that Stiles already had. Whether or not Derek bonded to him, Stiles hadn’t accepted him and he never would, especially not he if came off any more crazy than he already had.

This didn’t even touch the idea that Peter was Stiles’ alpha and Derek’s uncle. Anything he did in relation to Stiles was an affront against Peter and no matter how different Peter may seem, there was nothing indicating Peter was a bad man or deserved anything Derek could consider doing.

The sooner Stiles was gone the better; it was messing up everything.

Derek would work with the other pack, he would make sure they were safe and that they could settle down somewhere else. He would have them settle far away and never see them ever again.

It would be the only thing to make Derek perfectly content.

Well, that was a lie, but the plan remained the same.

Derek shook his head again and went to the back room. He pulled all of the mattresses out of their pile and lined them up on the floor. When he was done he laid down in the center and starfished across the mattresses. He lied still and closed his eyes, hanging on the edge of sleep.

After a while there were dips in the mattresses as others joined him in the group sleep. They curled close to each other and close to him, staying warm through shared body heat, so far past any discomfort.

Werewolves were tactile beings and relished in the comfort of their pack. Derek fell into sleep with that warmth surrounding him and hardly any thoughts of the one body which his wolf felt was missing.

The one Derek was sure would never return to his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ha! So yeah, this was done as a reward for finishing my Chem lab final because writing is way more fun than studying and I was ignoring it all day to focus on redox reactions. Gag me. 
> 
> Equally, I totally started writing because someone commented and I felt the need to prove myself by putting in the next chapter. Now it could totally be correlation and not causation, but I'd be lying.   
> This is totally causation.  
> So moral of the story is, if you comment, I get all excited and start writing with renewed vigor and then give you six paragraphs about it in the notes section! Yay!  
> But seriously, I love hearing things, even bad things, and suggestions, I'm all for the suggestions.   
> I need more sleep. 


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Traded explanations, shared stories, shy Isaac, feral Omegas, and some cohabitation. All while Derek gets some inklings about his uncles weird behaviors.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I need to stop making promises.   
> Okay, so there is some pack bonding stuff here, but all these chapters are pre-planned out and actually pre-written. I just go through and edit to make sure things make sense. So there is some pack stories but not as much as I would like, I'll look at it more in the next chapter. (I'm sorry, what I wanted to add didn't make sense here, so please accept my deepest apologies and take some fluff about werewolf mountain and let it sustain you for another chapter) 
> 
> I know the last couple have been shorter chapters, but they were all originally meant to be about 4000 words, a few of the chapters just ended up exploding after a frightful plot bunny attack.

When the other pack arrived the next morning Derek was ready.

As expected Stiles was not among them, but the pack didn’t seem nearly as uncomfortable without him this time.

Derek and Peter separated and moved to the office to talk about the specifics of the threat while Cora lead the remaining pack members over to the couches they had scrounged up. Cora nodded to him as he disappeared into the office, and Derek was pleased to know she had a handle on her task of learning about the other pack.

Derek closed the door and spun around to face Peter who had moved to the other side of the fold out table. “Tell me about the threat.” Derek commanded.

Peter nodded shallowly, not responding right away as part of a show of dominance. “Hunters.”

Derek tensed, images of his family falling to the ground, throats catching screams, bullets raining through the air.

He shook his head, and stared at Peter, waiting for him to elaborate.

Peter said nothing.

“Hunters don’t chase packs for no reason, what happened?” he prompted.

“We didn’t start it. It wasn’t our fault.” Peter bit out, and Derek knew history was affecting Peter as much as it affecting Derek.

They had both lost their family that day.

Derek sighed. “So what did happen?”

“It started with the omegas.” Peter said, his voice tired, “Our territory always attracted a lot of omegas, big open spaces, relatively small town with a good tourist population, people were always coming and going, no one notices new faces.

“Occasionally we would get a deranged one, just one that was a little out of his head from too long alone. This one was different. It was killing other omegas, and when our alpha, Carter, went to confront it, it viciously attacked. Carter killed it without a second thought. It was only later that we found out that it was Associated. “

Derek’s brows furrowed, he didn’t know what Associated meant. Peter seemed to understand.

“It’s something new, something we had never seen before. Omegas were bonding to humans, or being bonded, and then given a mission from their human to complete. A group of zealous hunters had started it, binding the psyche of a broken omega to a deranged human mind of a hunter. There was this one woman, Kate Argent, who was leading the charge and had Associated with that particular omega. When she found out that we had killed him, she and her brother came after us. They had four other omegas with them.

“When they attacked, we weren’t prepared. When they first came through they had two of our betas down before we even knew what was happening. Carter killed the first two omegas, then the third came at him from behind and ripped out his throat. Stiles went berserk. He killed the last omega and the hunter it was bonded to, Kate Argent’s brother.

“Argent swore her revenge and has been tracking us down ever since. She had followed us through seven states, sending more and more omegas after us each time. We have fought tooth and claw to kill them and to defend ourselves, but we are getting weaker and weaker with each narrow escape.

“I don’t think I can keep them alive without someone else’s help.” Peter looked up at Derek and met his eyes. His voice filled with tender emotion, “I cannot lose my pack.”

Derek nodded. He understood. Derek had already made a pledge to his own pack that he would never leave them, that he would protect them to his dying breath. He could only image what he would do if a threat came to them that he couldn’t beat. He would do anything for the help that Peter was asking for.

“If she comes here, we will do anything we can to protect you and your pack.” Derek wanted anything to protect his uncle from the pain he had obviously already been through. This Argent woman had dragged salt through Peter’s old wounds.

This urge to save them had nothing to do with Stiles.

It didn’t.

“Thank you.” Peter said, but something about his body language bellied his words, his posture went from crumpled to puffed. His chest was out, shoulders too far back for real gratuity, and he lifted his chin like he was expecting Derek to agree all along and had only been selling it.

It felt wrong, but Derek couldn’t take back his words, didn’t particularly want to.

He needed to keep a better eye on this alpha and find the sincerity of his pack.

 

XXX

Derek and Peter reemerged from the back room, drawn in by the belly laughs coming from the congregation of chairs on the other side of the room. The two packs were littered among the couches, leaning back, straining forwards, pressed against one another, or perched beside them. They were relaxed and calm with none of the rigidity of the other meeting.

“Oh my gosh, Peter,” Allison gushed, “Lydia studied the original Latin sources on the omega migration processes. Can you imagine how useful that would have been back home? Stiles would have killed for that information.”

“Fascinating.” grunted Peter, shuffling his feet towards the door, though he did send a curious glance in Lydia’s direction.

“She was just starting to tell me about their regular movements during different moon phases…” Allison said, staying seated, clearly hesitant to leave despite the obvious moves Peter was making towards the door.

“That’s nice, maybe another time.” His eyes were firmly on the door, only glancing back subtly when he realized none of his pack had moved off the couches.

“Actually we were wondering if maybe your pack could stay a little longer.” ventured Lydia, throwing pleading glances in Derek’s direction.

Derek internally sighed at the sudden parental feelings he was getting towards his pack.

“It’s fine by me.” Derek injected, shrugging.

Peter threw despairing glances at his pack and looked back at the door. “We really can’t stay. I have to get back to… the distillery. ” it was clearly not what he had been going to say, based off the glances he was throwing at Derek now. Derek wondered how much he knew about him and Stiles.

“You don’t need to stay.” offered Scott, “you could go meet Stiles and we could stay here.”

“Stiles said it was safe for us. He said we could trust them.” Danny offered, and Derek looked at him in confusion. Stiles had said it was safe for them here? Did that mean he trusted Derek? Or did it just mean that Stiles trusted Derek not to kill his pack?

Peter seemed to tense for a moment with the additional comment, but then he became thoughtful, glancing at the door again.

“Fine,” Peter bit out, “but when I call you, come.” and he strode out the door without a second look back.

Derek stared at his retreating form with confusion drawing his eyebrows together. Why would any alpha even need to tell his pack that he expected them to come when he called? It was an instinct that no beta should even be able to fight, let alone ignore.

Derek shook his head, ready to accept he would never be comfortable with the things that his uncle did and said.

Silence permeated the room for a moment following Peter’s departure. Derek stood watching the closed door, wondering how Peter ever became an alpha if he didn’t kill the previous one.

“So about those omegas...” Boyd questioned to the room at large.

Lydia smirked and then launched into some analytical breakdown on the movement of omegas during different moon phases which Allison paid rapid attention to.

The other broke out into other conversations, picking up where they left off before Peter and Derek emerged from the office.

“Okay, so scariest thing you have seen?” asked Erica, curled into Boyd’s side.

Derek wasn’t sure who exactly she was talking to, but most of the pack tuned in to the question. Derek collapsed into an armchair that had been left with an unspoken reserve for the alpha.

“Dude, there was this crazy omega that was ripping apart hikers in the woods, he used to torture them for days.” said Scott, shivering slightly at the memory.

“Dude.” Isaac responded, waving his hands around, indicating something Derek didn’t understand. Isaac glanced at the others and raised his eyebrows, sharing a silent between them.

Allison rolled her eyes over the two of them, “we get a lot of omegas where we are from, some are more violent than others.”

“Still, I don’t think that is the scariest thing I have ever seen.” smirked Jackson.

“And what is?” asked Erica, giggling slightly at the glee evident in Jackson’s face.

Jackson paused for dramatic effect, “Stiles angry.”

Scott snickered, “Heh, I think you mean Stiles murderous.”

“Which is not the same as Stiles murdering.” giggled Danny, joining in the joke.

“Yea, then it’s just sad and depressing and we all want to cuddle afterwards.” said Allison with mock seriousness.

“Dudes!” Isaac blurted, staring in horror at the other members of his pack. Derek wondered if it was at the flippant way they referred to Stiles killing, but it didn’t seem to be the case.

They all started to look sheepish and Derek looked in confusion at the members of his own pack, trying to see if any of them understood what was going on.

They didn’t.

“Okay, how about your happiest memory?” asked Boyd, trying to diffuse the tension between the other pack’s members.

“When we whip-creamed Carter.” Allison giggled and the mood was instantly lightened.

“Carter?” asked Cora, leaning forward toward Allison.

“He was our alpha before Peter.” and instantly the mood dampened again. “He was killed by an omega.” whispered Danny.

“My happiest memory was when Scott broke his leg.” Jackson said.

“Wow, thanks dude.” Scott chuckled, throwing a cushion at Jackson, both boys reputedly ignoring the sullen mood of the room.

“No man! When you broke your leg, and then it got healed and we all curled up together and watched Balto.”

“Oh yeah! Then Allison sat on top of me and declared herself queen of Werewolf Mountain.” snickered Scott.

“Then Stiles tackled her and declared that none could take over Werewolf mountain.” Jackson elbowed Allison.

“Oh my gosh, he was so fast, I didn’t even see him coming!” giggled Allison.

“My favorite memory was last Christmas.” whispered Isaac. The other pack had immediately quieted and Derek’s pack quieted their snickering too, understanding that whatever Isaac was saying, it was a special occurrence.

“Stiles was just sitting on the couch with Carter and I was in an armchair near them. They were talking about something, some pack thing, but it wasn’t stressful for once. Then everyone else came in, you guys all started piling on the couch, and then Scott pulled me into the pile too, and we were all laughing.” Everyone in the room smiled, the other pack at the shared memory, and Derek’s at the dreaminess on Isaac’ face. Derek was starting to understand that Isaac was a little quiet and clearly shy and demure. It didn’t seem common that he shared things.

“He smelled different that day.” whispered Isaac quietly, “Stiles didn’t just smell calm like he always does. He smelled content.”

“Yea,” Danny said just as quietly, “he almost never smells of anything but calm. I mean, in times of threat he can smell angry, but I can count the times on one hand when he smelled content.”

“Hey, why is that?” asked Cora, Derek could tell she was fishing for information, but didn’t feel the need to curb it.

Jackson shrugged, “It’s because of him being a soother, he can control the scent he releases.”

“I read soothers can control their emotions and the emotions of those around them, especially their pack members. Is it true?” asked Lydia.

“No, I mean, sort of?” Danny shrugged, “he can calm us down with his presence, and when he emotes, it can be kind of like a contact high, like a contact emotion. The stronger he emotes his calm, the more others feel it, but it kind of costs him.”

“How do you mean?” pressed Cora.

“I mean, Stiles has to control the emotion he emotes all the time. That’s why feeling anything but calm is unusual, he can’t manufacture contentment.” said Scott.

“You know, I think he said that the stronger his true emotions are the stronger the emotion that comes out is. You know, like if he was really angry, but forced it into calm, the calm would be stifling in the air.“ Allison murmured.

Derek remembered briefly the first meeting with the other pack, and the sudden stifling calm he had felt that had slowed his heart rate so severely. He couldn’t remember the context of the conversation that may have started it, but he wondered what emotion Stiles must have been feeling so strongly that he hid it with that much calm.

“Guys?” Isaac asked, looking up at the others with worry suddenly written on his face.

“What?” asked Danny, pushing himself forward to the edge of the chair, ready to move. Both packs followed suit, worried by the emotion in Isaac’ voice.

“How long did Stiles say he would be at the store?”

The other pack’s members looked from one face to another, sharing a silent conversation.

“He said he would be a few hours. It hasn’t been that long. Why, are you worried?” asked Scott, he was frowning, looking agitated.

“I don’t know, I don’t feel right, like something is off.” Isaac whispered.

The moment the words left his mouth the entire pack was up off the couches and shooting towards the door. Derek’s pack followed them, totally lost on what was going on.

As he passed, Derek grabbed Jackson, “What’s going on? Why is this a big deal?”

“Isaac has always been overly sensitive to Stiles. We think it was because they were changed by the same wolf. Either way, if Isaac ever feels something is off, we know something is off. We don’t risk it.”

Derek nodded and didn’t ask for further information, even though he desperately wanted to ask about the wolf that turned them.

“We are using our cars.” Derek announced in a voice that brooked no argument. It was still almost a surprise how quickly the other pack agreed considering how on edge they were. It wasn’t in a wolf’s instinct to accept help from another pack in times like these. Wolves liked to close ranks and protect the injured member, missing members counted the same way.

Still, the other pack hopped in Derek’s pack’s cars without comment.

Derek felt himself uncommonly attached to these wolves he had never met before yesterday, and he worried what it meant that they were so at ease with him in return.

He wrote it off as them yearning for a stronger alpha than the one they had.

“Where to?” he asked Isaac who had somehow ended up in his passenger seat, Cora was in the back with Lydia and Danny.

“Strip mall on Hirsch and Main Street.” said Isaac, digging his finger nails into his legs. Derek put his hand on Isaac’ arm to get him to stop and Isaac seemed to relax with the touch, releasing the pressure of his nails from his legs.

Danny made a noise from the back, and when Derek caught sight of him in the rearview mirror Danny’s face went from shock to confusion to thoughtfulness.

Derek shook his head slightly to clear his own confusion and make short the drive to the strip mall, going ten over the speed limit most of the way there.

The second he even started to slow down in the nearly deserted parking lot Isaac had his door open and was sprinting away, headed to the back of the strip mall.

Derek threw the car in park and climbed out, followed swiftly by the others, and they chased Isaac as fast as they could.

Derek caught up to Isaac first as being an alpha gave him some serious advantages. They made it around the side of the building which immediately brought into view the scene which was quickly escalating.

Three omegas were slowly advancing towards the building, while two figures, Peter and Stiles, moved backward slowly until Stiles was pressed against the brick with Peter slightly in front of him.

Derek felt a snarl rip from his throat.

How dare they threaten his mate?

He exploded through the change and attacked the first omega without any warning. The second he made contact he felt both of the packs snap into action and start ripping through the other two.

The omegas were all completely feral; Derek could feel the scared and empty animals they had now become.

He grappled with the omega, snapping at its throat, while it attempted to rip at his belly.

The omega was the strongest wolf he had even faced that wasn’t an alpha.

 It tried to roll them over, moving to sit on his chest, but Derek flipped it, smashing its head into the cement. Derek tore his fingers through its throat and stood up as the blood gushed out satisfactorily.

Derek spun to the other two omegas, holding down the closest one so Cora could claw out its stomach. He moved to help kill the third only moments before Peter took that one out too.

Derek whipped over to locate Stiles, senses already trying to figure out if he was injured, if Derek needed to protect him further. He moved to Stiles’ side without consciously thinking about it.

Derek put a hand on his shoulder, wanting to check every inch of Stiles, make sure he was okay, but the second his hand made contact with Stiles’ shoulder he flinched.

 Derek tore his hand away just as he felt a tug in his chest. He turned away quickly, remembering all too suddenly that he had been trying to keep his space, refusing to force himself on Stiles after everything from their past.

Before Stiles could comment on it, the rest of Stiles’ pack rushed over to him, running their hands up and down Stiles’ arms, chest, and back ensuring he wasn’t hurt. Derek had to look away to tramp down the urge to try to do that too.

His own pack rushed forward, wanting to get in reach of their alpha to feel safe, but Derek also noticed how they gravitated towards the others too, checking that both packs were fine.

This didn’t seem normal to him, the two packs shouldn’t be this caring of one another this soon after meeting. By all rights, after a fight, they should be separating to nurse any and all wounds, not wanting to open up any weaknesses to something that should be a weak alliance at best.

He was having a harder and harder time convincing himself that was a bad thing.

To ignore the emotions that brought up, Derek turned to Peter, “Were those omegas Associated?”

Peter stepped back from his pack, though he had been on the outer edge anyway so it wasn’t a hard thing to do, “Yes, they were Associated, which means that the hunters have found us faster than ever before.”

“If they are this close, we shouldn’t be as separated as the warehouse and the distillery.” Cora said, only looking at Derek out of the corner of her eye.

Derek paused, looking at Cora, trying to parse her offer. She had made it clear at first that she didn’t approve of Stiles, so he was confused on why she would let the other pack stay with them. He was only mildly annoyed that she offered without asking him first.

Peter started to make a face and seemed to open his mouth preparing to decline, but Stiles beat him, “I think it’s a good idea.”

Stiles turned to Peter already catching his objections. “If we really want to get rid of the hunters, we need the help. Being together in the same place will give us more time to prepare and we will be stronger when they come for us. This will give us the best chance to beat them and it will mean we can finally settle down and stop running.”

Everyone stayed quiet while Peter deliberated. Derek said nothing, partially because he had no objections to them staying at the warehouse, but also because he was freaking out with the sudden realization that once the threat was taken care of, the other pack would leave and settle down, likely back in their old territory.

Derek would be unable to see Stiles again, he couldn’t go into another territory without permission, and he didn’t have a good reason to. It didn’t matter that he had told himself he wouldn’t go near Stiles, and that he wouldn’t try and scare him by being around, but he hated the thought that he would never see Stiles again. Sure he had tried to convince himself it was for the best, he even remembered telling himself the ideal situation involved Stiles moving far away.

Now that the thought was idea in the open, spoken by Stiles’ own mouth, Derek couldn’t imagine completely losing Stiles again and his wolf howled in pain at the thought of a lost mate. He had lost Stiles once and while seeing him again was painful, losing him a second time would be a million times worse.

It didn’t help that Stiles had been looking straight at Peter and in his cajoling tone had said, “we can finally settle down.” Derek was very aware that Peter was interested in Stiles as more than a pack member, and Stiles saying things like that? It really wasn’t endearing Derek to his uncle.

Derek pinched himself, Stiles may be Derek’s mate, but Derek wasn’t Stiles’, he shouldn’t begrudge his uncle’s luck in getting Stiles.

A silent conversation seemed to be going on between Peter and Stiles, completely facilitated by eyebrow movement. At some point Peter appeared to give in, but not gracefully, his nostril lifted up in barely disguised disgust for Stiles’ antics.

Stiles did nothing in return but frown slightly and turn back towards Derek.

“Alpha Derek do you accept us into your home?” Peter asked voice tight with an emotion Derek couldn’t quite identify.

“Yes, I accept you into our home and give you shelter from that which plagues you.” Derek said, filling in the most appropriate response he could while keeping with ceremony.

“Thank you.” Peter responded, still cordial, but his shoulders were tight. “My pack will go with you back to the warehouse, Stiles and I will go pick up our supplies at the distillery and meet back there in a few hours.” Stiles flinched slightly, and Derek honed in on the discomfort in his body language. The other pack members seemed uncomfortable too, but Peter had phrased his command so it could be considered an order and they couldn’t argue it.

Derek wanted desperately to question it, but he was on tender footing as it was and couldn’t risk the loss.

“I’ll take the betas and meet you at the warehouse soon.” Derek agreed, nodding as if nothing was wrong, but he tried to make eye contact with Stiles to ensure he was okay. Stiles dropped his eyes and didn’t look at him.

It clawed at Derek, but he couldn’t do anything, he still wasn’t sure Stiles didn’t hate him. What Derek was sure of was that something was going on between Stiles and Peter, and Derek was starting to think it was more than a few questionable advances and normal alpha behavior. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, about that causation...  
> I got up with morning and saw another comment and got all excited to I started working on the next chapter (this one) and posted it as soon as possible.   
> These comments make the plot bunnies attack! Or just inspire me to get off my lazy ass and write. 
> 
> Also in an unrelated note, I realized my comments from the first chapter disappeared and I can't figure out how to rewrite them without them showing up on every chapter, (I am a failure). Anyway, here is the gist
> 
> This was originally a short (ha) story I wrote that had werewolves but no Sterek and was in fact entirely unrelated to teen wolf. Then I thought screw that and started rewriting it.   
> Now I am going through what I have written and editing it for Sterek. Stiles' original character was a woman at first so that is why there is sometimes pronoun mistakes.   
> This right here is what will make the chapter 2 notes make sense, but I seriously doubt anyone cared in the first place.   
> Thank you and goodnight (at 4:20 in the afternoon)  
> That totally just got "nine in the afternoon" stuck in my head


	7. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some background, some history, some explanation, and the joys of sparring. Now with the added addition of cliff hangers and unknown origin stories.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YAY! Chapter 7! Only three more to go!  
> Okay so the only thing I haven't written is the epilogue (chapter ten) because the teen wolf universe makes it so vastly different from my original story and the epilogue I have won't work.   
> Thus if you have any suggestions or something you want to see there let me know!
> 
> Also I apologize sincerely for not posting in response to my excitement from comments, but dude, chem is really hard and I actually may have cried after my final.   
> None the less I enjoy every comment and stalk this page religiously so thank you so much!
> 
> The story should be finished probably within the next week, (I like writing and find it far more fun than my actual responsibilities).

Derek took both packs back to the cars and ensured everyone got back to the warehouse safe.

When they arrived, he sent them half to move mattresses already here and sent the other half over to his own home to grab extras so they had enough for both packs. He didn’t think twice about sending members of the opposite pack to his home, and when that occurred to him he found it hard to worry about.

He prepared to set up the other pack in the next room from where his own normally slept. There wasn’t enough space for two separate clusters of mattresses and despite whatever weird alpha paternal feelings he got for the other betas, packs didn’t mix.

By the time everyone came back, Stiles and Peter still hadn’t arrive.

Derek found himself on edge without Stiles here and he found it bazar that he was so reliant on Stiles’ calming presence despite having been so long apart.

He purposely chose to ignore the mate aspect of that.

By unspoken agreement everyone ended up back on the couches.

“How long has Peter been alpha?” asked Cora, from how the rest of his pack leaned forward to hear the answer, he knew he wasn’t the only one uncomfortable with whatever the hell was going on with Peter.

“Since Carter died, so like nine months?” shrugged Danny.

“We’ve been on the run for the last seven so that sounds about right,” nodded Allison, she said it lightly, but her shoulders drooped and a frayed expression appeared on her face. She leaned back into Scott, but she patted Isaac’s arm like she knew he needed comfort most.

“Why didn’t Stiles become the alpha?” asked Erica, changing the subject and latching on to something Derek hadn’t even thought about it.

The pack was clearly more contingent on Stiles than on Peter, so why not make him the alpha?

Scott snorted, “because he’s a soother.” Scott said it so matter-of-factly that Derek felt almost stupid for not understanding.

“What does that have to do with anything?” asked Lydia, saving him from asking. Lydia had a way of making questions sound more snarky than ignorant, a trait Derek had always been a little jealous of.

“A soother’s entire life revolves around making sure the pack is cared for and loved, making sure they are all safe and protected. The alpha is also about making a pack safe and protected, but it’s making sure that the pack is well trained and stays in line as well. Stiles wouldn’t be able to force us to do anything, he can barely yell at us without his instincts choking him up.” Danny explained.

“What does that mean, his instincts choking him up?” asked Cora, shifting forward. Derek could practically feel her digs for information, but he wasn’t so sure Cora hated Stiles as much anymore. For whatever reason, Stiles’ extended presence seemed to soften her and she seemed to be getting almost protective. 

“Stiles always said that was the worst part of being a soother, his instincts literally force him to stop anything that could hurt us, he has to stick with the pack and protect us over anything else, _no matter what_.” said Scott.

“He also has to do whatever the alpha tells him if they says it’s for the good of the pack.” said Isaac.

The moment the words were out of Isaac’s mouth, Stiles’ pack collectively flinched.

Derek sat up straighter tracking the motion. “What does that mean?” his voice came out harsher and more of a demand than he meant it, but he didn’t care, something was wrong with how they were reacting.

It was Isaac who answered quietly. “For the most part Stiles can do what he wants, but Peter is a lot stricter than Carter ever was. Carter and Stiles used to talk it out; they used to decide together what the best thing for the pack was. Now all Peter does is make decisions and tell Stiles that it’s for the best of the pack that Stiles agree with him. “

“It’s not that bad.” Allison injected quickly, but even she seemed unsure. “Stiles approved of him becoming alpha and we all accepted him. Peter never hurt us and he made sure we stayed alive this long, even with the threat of the hunters and the omegas.”

“It still took us months to get here.” Jackson pointed out. Derek scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, but Boyd said something before Derek could.

“What do you mean by here?” he asked.

“Stiles had been suggesting we come back to Beacon Hills for a long time, Stiles said he grew up here and he thought it might be safe, but Peter refused for the longest time.”

“Peter said he had other ins with stronger packs, even Stiles didn’t know what we would find here.” defended Danny.

“The other packs didn’t do us a lot of good.” Isaac snarked back, but his voice was quiet and bitter and filled with defeat, like he had seen too much the last few months and had lost hope. “I just don’t get why Peter never listens to Stiles.”

“I swear Peter still thinks he has a chance with Stiles because he’s alpha now. It’s like he thinks because Carter and Stiles were together when Carter was alpha, the position should pass to Peter with the alpha title.” Scott lifted his lip in a silent snarl, and the rest of his pack seemed to agree.

Derek’s pack knew better than to comment on that, though Derek was fighting the urge to rip Peter to shreds and claim Stiles for himself.

He knew it was wrong on multiple levels, not only because trying to kill Peter and claim Stiles would hurt Stiles, but also because an unwanted claiming was exactly what Peter seemed to be trying to do.

That didn’t even take into account that Stiles was a soother and that anything that hurt Stiles’ pack would physically hurt Stiles. Not to mention Derek liked this pack, he felt connected to these wolves and he couldn’t explain it, but he didn’t want to hurt them too by killing their alpha and claiming their soother.

“You said Stiles grew up here, is his family here?” asked Cora.

Derek grabbed onto it. “Hasn’t he visited them in the last five years?” Derek knew the answer, he knew Stiles hadn’t been back in the territory in the last five years but Derek didn’t know why. Derek had been convinced it was because Stiles was terrified of him, but the more he saw Stiles the less likely that seemed.

But if he wasn’t afraid of Derek, why wouldn’t he visit his family? Derek knew how much Stiles loved them, Stiles had talked about his family all the time.

“What, five years ago? I think that was when Stiles’ life started falling apart.” Danny said, completely unaware of how that statement affected Derek.

“What do you mean?“ Derek asked. He kept it out of his voice but panic and pain gripped him as he thought about how he had terrorized the man he loved.

“Well I think it started with his mother dying.”

“His mother died? When?” Derek was completely bewildered, it hadn’t happened while they were dating or Stiles would have told him. Hell, Stiles would have nearly fallen apart before dropping everything and going to be with his dad. More than likely Derek would have followed.

“Um, Five years ago? Wasn’t that what prompted this discussion?” Danny crinkled his eyebrows at him.

“Didn’t he mention college? A boyfriend?” Derek asked, his fishing wasn’t subtle, but only Cora seemed to notice or at least the others didn’t show it.

Derek just wanted to know how the hell any of that fit into Derek’s side of the story.

“Ha! No, I don’t think Stiles has ever been with anyone besides Carter. He never said anything. I only know he got is Bachelor’s degree, he never went farther because of all the wolfy stuff.” shrugged Scott.

“Wait, that’s not true.” Allison said, pulling away from Scott slightly and turning to the other members of her pack.

“What do you mean?” Scott asked, clearly confused. Based on the jaw-dropped expression of the other members of their pack, none of them knew what Allison was talking about.

“I mean, I may have overheard some fights between Carter and Stiles.” shrugged Allison.

“Carter and Stiles never fought!” sputtered Isaac.

“You and I both know that’s not true.” Scott said, interrupting Isaac with a firm look, “They fought all the time, but Stiles never raised his voice.” Scott didn’t know what Allison was talking about, but he didn’t seem to want Isaac idolizing Stiles and Carter’s relationship.

“But they fought over schooling?” asked Cora, trying to get back on track.

“No, they fought over some guy that Stiles knew. It was right before Carter died, when we… when we thought that they were going to mate.” said Allison quietly.

“Wait, they were fighting about another guy? Stiles was never with anyone, we would have smelled it.” Jackson leaned forward in his chair, fixing a stare Allison as if trying to hear the lie that wasn’t there. Derek’s breath caught in his throat.

“I don’t know the specifics, you would have to ask Stiles. What I do know is that when Carter accepted Stiles as his mate, Carter got all clingy and Stiles started worrying about something.” Allison’s voice crescendoed, “They were fighting and then Stiles packed a bag, and… I don’t know.” Allison petered out.

“No. What? No. Stiles wouldn’t leave us, he wouldn’t pack a bag. No. Just no.” Isaac sputtered.

“I actually may have seen the bag too.” Scott announced quietly.

“What? No. No, no. No, no, no, no, no.” Isaac drew in on himself on the couch and Derek felt the sudden urge to comfort him.

“It’s okay, really, I asked him about it, really, and he said he was just going to find someone and then… then everything happened.” Allison’s voice got small, “When we went back home the bag was gone, and Stiles never left.” Allison tried to comfort Isaac, reaching out a hand, but he drew away.

“So before everything happened, he was just going to leave us? He was just going to walk away? He only stayed because… because IT happened? Was it really that bad with us? So bad he wouldn’t stay?” Isaac asked forlornly.

“No.”

Everyone turns to see Stiles enter the room. “I was going to leave to find answers, to make sure that I was making the right decision. I never wanted to bind myself to Carter if I had even the slightest doubts but I was always coming back. That bag only had enough clothes for a few days, a week tops. I needed my answers, and what would have happened after that depended on what I found, but I was always coming back.” Stiles reached the couch and put a comforting hand on the back of Isaac’s neck. Giant wafts of calm rolled off Stiles and everyone’s heart rates slowed.

“I could never leave all of you. Never. Carter and I were fighting, but we had an understanding. He knew where I was going and he knew what I was doing. All of our decisions together would be based on my choice when I came back.”

Derek felt like a voyeur watching Stiles care for his pack, keeping his hold on Isaac’s neck while placing soothing touches on the others with his free hand. Derek’s entire pack was seated around them, watching as Stiles explained away actions that suggested a depth of emotional damage Derek wasn’t aware of. Yet no matter how awkward it was to watch them like this, Derek was desperate to know the whole story.

Stiles sighed, “But then everything happened, then Carter died, and I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t leave you all alone. So I put the bag away and tried to never think about it because the only reason I didn’t mate to Carter, the only reason we weren’t connected, that I didn’t know the second he was in trouble, that I couldn’t save him, was the reason I packed that bag in the first place.”

“And you never tried leaving again?” asked Isaac quietly.

“I figured it was my punishment.” Stiles answered voice just as low.

“What were you trying to find?” asked Danny.

“It doesn’t matter now.” Stiles shrugged, “I have some of my answers and even if I had found them all that time ago, I know now that it would have been infinitely more complicated than I thought I might be.” Stiles shrugged again, finally let go of the betas in front of him and taking a step back.

“Stiles,” Derek said, fixing his gaze to Stiles’. “You deserve to be happy.”

Stiles’ pack looked up at him and he suddenly felt their true acceptance of him. It wasn’t something they were meant to give, not to the alpha of another pack, but he loved it, felt himself loving them, for whatever reason.

Stiles smiled sadly, “you have no idea what that means.”

 Stiles didn’t mean it like Derek didn’t know what it meant for him to say it to him, it also didn’t mean Derek didn’t know happiness, more like he did know but didn’t know what it would cost for Stiles to have it.

Derek didn’t know how to respond and Stiles appeared to have said his piece so he left. He wondered away and Derek deflated as he left.

Derek blinked and turned back to all the betas on his couches. He hoped the other pack’s betas didn’t realize how attached he was to their soothers, it could only end badly for everyone.

“Why do you guys feel so comfortable here?” Derek asked, no longer able to see a reason not to question the feelings that made him happy.  He really needed to analyze all the things he just learned about Stiles and his past, but he wasn’t ready just yet.

“I don’t know, I trust you, there is something about the scent here that feels comforting.” Allison said, shrugging.

“It honestly reminds me of Stiles, especially when he first joined the pack and was as lost as I felt.” Isaac said, turning those puppy dog eyes on Derek, “It kind of makes me feel that if we share our pack with you, we might heal like Stiles healed.” Derek’s chest ached with the emotion of Isaac’ words, he did sound lost, and Derek desperately wanted to protect him. The urge to take him into his pack was strong.

Derek crushed the emotion and focused on other parts of the statement instead.

“What do you mean like Stiles healed?” he asked.

“Stiles was more broken than any of the other omegas we have ever seen. He was completely feral when Carter met him and Carter almost killed him on the spot, except the moment Stiles caught the scent of another wolf, he collapsed into tears because he thought he was alone in his lycanthropy.” said Isaac, now eager to share with Derek for whatever reason.

“He was feral?” asked Cora, sitting on the edge of her seat, leaning forward towards Isaac. Derek wanted to snap at her eagerness.

“Stiles was turned about four years ago, he spent about six months in the woods on his own before Carter found him. I don’t know if Stiles was feral exactly because the second we found him he snapped out of it. Stiles thinks it was because he’s a soother and his greatest instinct was to care for the pack and he could only do that if he was human.” said Scott.

Derek remembered that time, four years and six months ago, when he had suddenly been enveloped by disembodied fear, confusion, and panic. Derek had been driven by the instinct to go find Stiles, had even gone so far as to hire someone, but Derek had been worried about Stiles’ fear of him, so worried that he had apparently abandoned Stiles when he needed Derek most.

“Where was the wolf who turned him?” asked Derek, thinly disguised rage was seeping into his voice. It was one thing if Stiles had chosen a pack, had chosen to be a wolf, then it wasn’t fair of Derek to care, to be enraged that another wolf would turn his mate. This was different. It was sounding more and more like someone else had _done this_ to Stiles and Derek couldn’t bear the thought of them hurting Stiles when Derek wasn’t around to protect him.

“It was an omega. A deranged one. Carter found it and killed it. We didn’t know about Stiles at the time.” explained Jackson.

“How could you not know about him?” Derek could feel the rage bubbling up, seeping into his tone, but he pushed it down, it wasn’t fair to subject his pack to his feelings. He needed to get a grip.

“He… the omega…. We didn’t know….” Danny stammered before Isaac of all people cut him off.

“This is Stiles’ story to tell, not ours. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Derek desperately wanted to push, wanted to shake the story out of them, but when he opened his mouth, intention clear on his face, Isaac shut down.

Derek closed his jaw with a snap and resisted the urge to say anything at all.

“Let’s try training.” He said instead and stood up, hoping to shake loose the dark feelings he had about Stiles’ history.

The two packs followed him to the center of the warehouse and Derek set about setting them up. At first he tried keeping the packs separate, worried about issues that might occur. People of opposite packs were known to escalate fights, it wasn’t smart to pair two people who might hurt one another. This was only meant to be training.

The betas realized what he was doing very quickly before Jackson rolled his eyes and paired himself up with Boyd. The rest of the wolves waited patiently for Derek to pair them properly.

Derek frowned at them and then did as he should have in the first place. He needed to accept that for whatever reason the packs were already too comfortable with each other for anything to be a problem.

He put Lydia with Isaac, Aiden with Danny, Scott with Ethan, and Erica with Allison.

Initially satisfied, Derek sparred with Cora for a while, trying to work out some of his tension, but he kept noticing things about the other pairings and was too distracted to focus properly on Cora’s attacks. Eventually he stopped and set about rearranging the groupings, pairing up people who he thought would be a better fit.

“Put Boyd and Jackson against Cora and Danny and Lydia.” someone suggested from behind him and Derek turned to see Stiles standing and watching.

Both packs turned to him to see what his command would be, and when he nodded Stiles’ pack seemed to relax, like they had been holding themselves ready for something.

 Derek had the sudden notion that he had been tested and hopefully that he had passed.

He asked Ethan, Scott, and Erica to face Aiden, Allison, and Isaac and Stiles tilted his head thoughtfully.

The packs rearranged like he had ordered them to and he went to stand beside Stiles as they watched the betas start sparring.

“They liked that you took my suggestion, not all alphas would have been so accepting of a suggestion from an inferior, let alone an inferior from another pack.” Stiles said conversationally.

There were so many responses, so many rejections of his statement, for one, Stiles was not inferior, and besides, they didn’t really feel like another pack.

Derek didn’t say those things.

“I don’t know everything, I wouldn’t be where I am today if I didn’t accept help from those who offered it.” Derek thought briefly of Isaiah and even Stiles himself.

Stiles turned to him, eyebrows up. Derek ignored the look in favor of continuing to watch all of the betas fight each other.

“So were you always a wolf or was that something that happened after?” Stiles asked, changing the subject.

He didn’t have to ask after what, he knew what Stiles meant.

“I was born a wolf.” he said, never taking his eyes from the betas. He couldn’t look at Stiles’ face, but he also couldn’t smell his emotion. All Derek ever got was that infuriating calm.

A feeling took hold of Derek and he made a rash decision, “at the end, at the very end, just before you left but after we broke up, were you afraid of me?” Derek was terrified of the answer but he couldn’t bear not knowing.

“Derek, I—“ Stiles took a deep breath and Derek held his, “I was never afraid of you, I knew you wouldn’t hurt me, I had this instinct that there was something more going on, I could actually feel it. But Derek, our relationship wasn’t healthy. You literally had no one else besides me in your life. I broke it off because us being together was hindering you instead of helping you, and trust me, fighting off soother instincts, even while I was still human, was insanely hard.  I chose a moment where you were at your angriest and I used that to convince myself that you were too attached and it would hurt you.”

“Stiles, I felt your terror, that night when I cornered you. When I grabbed your arm fear just leaked out of you, that’s why I ran away, I never wanted you to be afraid of me.”

Stiles laughed, he _laughed_ , okay, maybe it was more of a harsh exhale with the slightest twinges of humor, but still, laughter.

“Derek, you grabbed my arms and flashed your freakishly blue eyes at me, I swear you already had half your fangs out in addition to your overly furry face. Of course I freaked out. I thought my boyfriend had been turned into a character in a B-movie horror. After you ran away I convinced myself I imagined it, that it was shock and worry and too much stress from studying and the break-up. Then the next day I found out about my mom and well… I didn’t give it much thought after that.”

“Stiles, for the record, I wanted to tell you that I was a wolf. I just wasn’t sure how you would react, I didn’t want to lose you.”

“that worked out well.” Stiles snorted sarcastically, but he sobered quickly, “Thank you.” He said, and Derek’s eyebrows pulled together in confusion. Eyebrows which Stiles smirked at. “If I could have chosen, I don’t think I would have picked this life. I think I would have preferred to stay human. It would have made a lot of things easier.” Stiles said the last thing in such a low voice, Derek wasn’t sure he was meant to have heard it.

In any case, it didn’t sound like it was directed at Derek.

“I wouldn’t have turned you, not unless you asked for it. I was always happy with you exactly as you were.” Derek said, voice filled with sincerity as he met Stiles gaze with his own.

“Thank you,” Stiles gave a small smile, then it drooped again, “but I have to ask, when we were together, the anger….”

“It was mostly about my wolf; when you met me, I was repressing it. After, when I had accepted it, I had problems controlling it. The first time we kissed was right before the first time I had shifted in years.” Derek definitely owed Stiles at least this much, probably more, but Stiles needed to know that Derek hadn’t meant to be psychotic when he was with him.

 “And at the end?” Stiles asked, “You suddenly started getting clingy, and now I understand the smelling thing, but it was worse than it had ever been. Then started getting violent, like smashing that lamp, what was that?” Stiles seemed to be fishing for something specific, but Derek wasn’t sure how much he knew.

He opened his mouth to answer, but promptly shut it again. How could he tell Stiles that he had mated with him? How could he just dump this on him after all this time? Stiles was happy with his place in his own pack, Derek didn’t want to complicate it for him.

The wolf inside Derek howled that he was pushing away the perfect opportunity to finally have his mate, but his human side knew that telling Stiles would endanger Stiles’ pack dynamic and Stiles would do anything to protect his pack. There was no uncomplicated way that he and Stiles could be together. Stiles couldn’t leave his pack because he was a soother and Derek could leave his because he was their alpha.

He wasn’t even going to think about Peter.

He was saved from having to respond when a scream pierced out across the warehouse.

Stiles moved faster than him and was at Ethan’s side before Derek. Derek wasn’t surprised to hear the growl which was ripped out of Ethan when Stiles placed his hands on Ethan’s side, but he was surprised that Ethan didn’t fight him any further. Normally when a werewolf was injured, it would only let pack near it. Maybe the soother in Stiles didn’t have those restrictions.

The other pack carefully stepped away from Stiles and Ethan, fully aware of Ethan’s primal insticts, but they made no effort to protect Stiles. In every other circumstance, with even the slightest bit of perceived danger, Stiles’ pack was practically throwing themselves on top of him. Now they backed away and left Stiles with an injured, and likely violent, werewolf without second thought.

Stiles leaned over Ethan and pressed his hand onto Ethan’s bicep. From what Derek could tell it didn’t look too bad, just a dislocated arm.

“The muscle tore,” Stiles said with surety. Without pausing, he wretched the arm back into the socket. Stiles’ face remained a mask, giving nothing of his true emotions, but the calm in the air was thicker than normal.

“Sit up,” he coaxed Ethan, helping him as he struggled to a seated position.

Derek looked at his own pack and was surprised to realize that none of them were having the slightest issue with Stiles caring for their injured pack mate despite the instinct they should be fighting to protect their injured member from outsiders.

Derek was equally surprised that he wasn’t even bothered that Stiles was taking care of Ethan, he was even relieved when Stiles had stepped up, though perhaps that was to be expected considering he still thought Stiles was his mate.

Every opportunity these packs had to show their separation and they had thrown themselves together. Derek had felt the attachment to them almost immediately and he was seriously starting to worry what that meant.

Equally, he was wondering when it would stop being surprising to him.

Stiles held his hand to Ethan’s injured shoulder and started whispering soothing, yet nonsensical words to him. “This may feel a little strange,” Stiles whispered, and then pressed his hand deeply into Ethan’s injured shoulder.

The other pack winced in sympathy, but Derek and his own pack were completely confused.

Ethan started to squirm uncomfortably and Stiles placed his other hand on Ethan’s chest to keep him in place.

“Hold still,” Stiles whispered.

A moment later Stiles sank back on his haunches, looking a little grey, and he released Ethan. Ethan flopped forward with one hand on his shoulder and started breathing a little quickly, as if regaining his breath.

“Oh my god, what was that?” he asked, voice filled with wonder.

Stiles smiled weakly at him, “My own personal brand of medicine.” he said before he sunk back completely to sit on the floor.

Derek flinched forward but stopped himself when Danny offered Stiles a hand to get off the floor. Stiles waved him away. “Give me a minute.”

“What happened?” asked Cora, moving forward to put a hand on Ethan’s shoulder as if to assure herself he was okay.

“It was amazing!” Ethan nearly shouted in his wonderment, “he put his hand on my shoulder and it was like he was leaching the pain right out, I could feel the muscle knitting back together way faster than it would have on its own. It felt really weird though, like and itch I couldn’t scratch.”

“It’s worse when it’s a head injury, your brain tries to process it while its healing and it’s the weirdest sensation on the planet.” said Jackson with sincerity. The others of his pack nodded with understanding.

“What the hell are you talking about?” asked Derek becoming increasingly confused and by result angry.

“I can take away pain, and expedite the healing process. It’s another part of being a soother.” said Stiles, only just now rising from the floor.

Derek looked at him in horror as everything clicked, “but it makes you weak?” he asked.

“It does, but only for a minute. I recover quickly.” Stiles shrugged like it was nothing, but Derek felt dread clutch at him as he thought of Stiles pushing himself too far.

“Don’t do it again.” He commanded, his eyes flashing red.

Stiles’ pack baulked at the command, but Stiles raised a single hand, calming them.

“Carter freaked out too when he learned of it. He threated to lock me up whenever someone was injured to keep me from helping.” The pack looked at Stiles with beleaguered acceptance. “It’s an alpha thing; they feel the need to protect the soother from everything, no matter what.” Stiles shrugged and left it at that, but he did send Derek an inscrutable look before walking back to the office, looking for something to eat.

Derek felt completely justified in wanting to protect him, but as Derek walked away, clearing his mind, he realized his overreaction. It didn't help that the other pack clearly had some issues with the alpha giving orders like that and Derek wondered how exactly Peter had been handling disputes.

Where was Peter anyway?

Derek frowned and was about to go back and apologize to Stiles and the other pack when an explosion and a hail of rocks sent him crashing to the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, I am trying so immensely hard to add in more pack relations but dude they just don't want to come in! I'm going to try to write it in especially in the epilogue, but I didn't want to put too much here because I felt it interrupted the flow....
> 
> I don't know
> 
> Remember when the original story was only 39,809 words long? Cause I sure do, now its longer than that and I'm only at chapter seven. This is insane. 
> 
> Anyway, I apologize for the massive amount of commas (I love them so dearly and misuse them like nobodies business) and any typos and such, let me know if anything is glaring.
> 
> So, more than likely I'll post the next chapter tomorrow! Enjoy!


	8. Chapter Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fights, attacks, injuries, wolfsbane, and the big reveal. All in the addition to some Florence Nightingale style confessions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so If you have been reading this from the beginning, please know that I went back and changed the scene with Derek pulling his mother out of the house to Derek pulling Laura out. It really doesn't change anything, other than it making more sense that Derek would save his sister than saving the alpha (who would be saving him...)  
> This only matters because it is mentioned in like half a line. It's not massive.
> 
> Okay so the person who commented that I couldn't leave it as a cliff hanger if I wasn't going to update soon made me crack up (laughing), but here you go!
> 
> Minor trigger warning- Stiles mentions suicide, but just as something he wouldn't consider doing. Also some violence and some of the abuse I mentioned in the tags. (It's not caused by Derek)
> 
> Also Allison is not related to the Argents- I think I already killed off Chris and Allison was not the least bit notable in the reaction department so there you go!  
> ("I think" hahaha yes I killed off Chris without the slightest care because he freaked me out when JR (the actor who plays Chris) showed up on Revenge and threatened Jack.  
> I like Jack, screw you JR.

Shouts and screams were distorted to his ringing ears.

Derek staggered to his feet and tried to figure out what was happening.

Running and fighting. Bodies moving through the air. Fire. Blurs and smoke.

Derek blinked as his body started to heal itself and things cleared up.

At least ten omegas were running through the warehouse attacking members of both packs. There were two dead omegas on the floor and several pack members had taken damage.

Derek pushed himself forward, bodying slamming into the nearest omega. They grappled on the floor, rolling, and Derek dug his claws into its hide as it thrashed. He pulled his fingers out, lunging forward trying to reach its throat.

The omega rolled away, displacing Derek from on top. Derek rolled to all fours just as the omega twisted around and sprang at him. Derek let it hit him and then used the momentum to flip them head over heels so Derek was on top again. It made for a strike at his stomach and Derek ripped out its throat.

He left the body on the floor and moved over to the two omegas that Ethan and Aiden were taking on. He came in from behind and snapped the neck of the first. The second turned on him instantly and both Ethan and Aiden took the opportunity to finish that one too.

Derek heard a snarl off to his left, and turned just in time to see Stiles, covered in blood, pull his claws from the belly of an omega and watch it fall to the floor. Stiles looked up and their eyes met across the room, they held the gaze for a moment before Stiles nodded and then shot off to take on another omega.

Both packs were fairing well against the omegas, having taken out seven of the original ten, but something was off about the last three.

They were the strongest of the Associated omegas. They stood apart during the initial fighting as the two packs had picked off the first seven omegas, waiting for the packs to be injured in the fighting and become weaker when they faced the three fresh fighters.

As the three omegas moved forward to face the packs three hunters walked in following them. Kate Argent led the way while a woman with short fiery red hair and an older man followed behind.

The three hunters stood behind their respective omegas and then clapped. The omegas took the command and attacked.

Boyd, Jackson, Erica, Danny, and Lydia were faced one of them, taking turns going in for hits, spinning out of the way when retaliation came. The omega, controlled by the fiery haired woman, was throwing itself around the room, spinning back and forth, reaching out and snapping at the betas. The betas were actually spending more time dodging than they were attacking.

Peter, Stiles, Scott, Cora, and Isaac were all facing the second one, the one controlled by the old man, but this one was relying more on muscle than speed and was using full body attacks against them, battering them down.

Derek was about to go help them when he heard a shout from behind him and found Ethan, Aiden, and Allison trying to take the third one down on their own. Derek ran to meet up with them and they grappled with the omega.

The omega swiped at them and Kate Argent waved her arms like she was controlling it, working it like a puppet master.

Ethan and Aiden kept dodging in, doing quick jabs with claws from either side, timing it so the omega could only go after one or the other. Allison zipped in and out, trying to clamp her teeth on any area that was exposed, latching on to ears, paws, legs, and at least once, the back of the neck.

When the omega was sufficiently distracted, Derek went around it and launched himself at Argent.

He threw himself into her, knocking them both to the ground.

The other two hunters, the red-headed woman and the older man shouted out, getting distracted from the fight and losing focus on the omegas.

There were roars and howls as the betas and Peter finished off the other two omegas, only leaving the one Kate controlled.

Derek lifted his weight off her slightly so he could get his hand to her throat. He lifted his arm and then curled in again as pain sliced through his side. He growled as Argent pulled the knife from his side and he felt the wolfsbane spread through his system.

He raised his arm again and then brought it down, digging his fingers into her throat and ripping.

The other two hunters ran from the scene, their omegas and family member already dead. They vowed revenge as they left and Derek had faith his entire pack had rolled their eyes at that.

He lifted himself up, clutching his side and he heard a grief stricken roar. Derek turned just in time to see the final omega, the one that had been controlled by Kate, throw itself at Derek and slash through his side, just over the wound from the knife.

Derek screamed as claw tore through his side and pain blacked out his vision. Derek sunk to the floor, unable to stay standing any longer and clutched his side as it gushed blood.

Peter moved toward the omega and slashed its throat, the omega putting up no more fight now that its Associated master was gone and had been avenged.

“Derek!” he heard a someone shout, and for the briefest moment he thought it was his sister Laura but then he blacked out.

 

XXX

 

Derek woke to a darkened room he recognized as his own, back in the Hale house.

He blinked at the darkness, trying to figure out how he got there when he heard voices echoing downstairs.

He strained his hearing and listened in.

“You shouldn’t be here.” The words were stone cold and it took him a moment to identify them as from Cora.

“Of course I should be here, Derek was injured, I should be at his side.” snarled a voice Derek immediately recognized as Kayla’s, tone and all.

“You aren’t pack.” He heard Lydia say in a low response.

“Neither are they!” came the rebounding accusation from Kayla.

“We are nursing our own wounds here too.” He heard from a soft Stiles.

“Buzz off bitch, I’m his mate, I should be by his side.” Kayla’s voice was cold and heartless, and Derek wanted her gone immediately.

“You aren’t his mate and you know it.” growled a voice in response and he was shocked to hear it from Stiles.

Derek felt a tug in his chest.

“Leave Kayla, you aren’t welcome here.” Cora said and he heard the agreement of the rest of his pack.

Derek was never more proud.

Kayla grumbled something he couldn’t make out, and he heard the sound of a lamp shattering, but there was one more growl, louder than anything he ever heard his pack make, and then the sound of the front door slamming shut.

There was silence for a moment in the house before people started to move again.

Derek tried to take stock of himself and moved to turn on to his side. Even the slightest movement sent pain lancing across his chest and Derek struggled to keep in the whine building in his throat.

He reached out a hand to run along his side and found it bandaged. Clearly the wound was bad enough that it wasn’t healing quickly, but also that it was also debilitating him. He could feel wolfsbane pulsing through his veins, still trying to work its way out. Angered by the thought, Derek tried to sit up.

The use of his abdominal muscles ended up blacking his vision again as pain exploded through him.

He flopped back against the pillow and lost consciousness.

 

He came to again to a slight pinch followed by the feeling of something cool pressed against his forehead. He had the scent of spice, fresh bread, and calm filling his nose and he immediately felt safe and cared for though still sluggish.

He relaxed further into the mattress, never having opened his eyes, and some of the remaining tension leaked from him muscles.

“It’s okay, Derek, it’s okay.” Stiles whispered soothingly, but he didn’t seem to realize Derek was awake.

Derek didn’t really feel the need to say anything, but even when he tried to move his tongue he found he couldn’t anyway.

“It was taking you forever to relax, you are lucky that your pack kept some wolfsbane around. In low enough doses it can work like a sedative and this way, you don’t keep ripping out your stiches with your every movement.” Stiles chuckled lightly. “It’s like you just can’t wait to be up and moving again, no matter how much you bleed.”

Sleep dragged at Derek, and though his eyes were still closed he fought to at least remain aware of his surroundings and enjoy the time with Stiles. Derek couldn’t remember a single reason Stiles shouldn’t be with him right now and he drew comfort from his every touch.

“My pack told me that they let it slip to you that I was turned by a deranged omega. I’m glad they didn’t tell you. Partially it’s because it wasn’t their story to tell, but also because they don’t know the whole story. Only Carter and I knew the entirety of what happened, I didn’t think the pack needed to know the horror I went through.” Derek could almost hear the sad smile in Stiles’ words, though Derek still hadn’t opened his eyes.

He still didn’t think that Stiles knew he was conscious.

Derek let him continue to talk.

“I didn’t want to leave, you know. I think it has something to do with the soother in me, but I saw that you were just damaged and that you needed repairing, I knew I could save you. But then you had to go and make it so damn hard. You know how many people came up to me to ask if I felt safe in our relationship, do you know how many people thought you were hitting me? They saw your anger and just assumed that was what it was. I know now for a fact that how you acted wasn’t anything like how a real abuser behaves, especially not in public, but you did have a lot of the indicators to an outsider.  When you broke that lamp, when I saw you get physically violent for the first time, I told myself I had to leave. I’m not stupid. I know that I’m not supposed to stay in a relationship like that, but I never feared for myself, I like to think that I could tell that you were a good person, but angry because of everything that had happened. I like to think it was the soother side of me kicking in while I was still human, but that side of me was still weak enough that I could leave you.

“Soothers can’t go against what is best for their pack, no matter what.” Stiles huffed and stayed silent for several minutes.

“The only time I was ever truly frightened of you was that night I was leaving the library and you grabbed my arm. When your eyes glowed blue I didn’t know what the hell it meant and I was terrified, but you freaked out and ran away, so I never found out the truth.

“When I got home that night I got the call that call that my mother was in the hospital. I packed my bags right away and went to them. I was so grief stricken I just wrote off whatever I had seen that night.

“Things were fine for a year, we were all grieving, knowing she would be gone for good soon. I wanted so desperately for her to get better.” Stiles huffed a little again and tears hit Derek’s arm.

“My mom died about a year after I arrived. She fought it tooth and nail, but she still lost. It crushed me, being a soother and losing members of you pack, even if I was still human, it was like a part of my soul dying. I was taking it worse than anyone, but I was so desperate to hide it from people. I didn’t want my grieving to hurt the other members of my family, so after the funeral I wondered through the woods, trying to find some space to think.

“I didn’t know, but Carter told me later, there was an omega in the woods they had been tracking for a month. It was ripping apart jogger and hikers and their bodies would be found weeks later, half eaten and already decaying. That omega grabbed me and nearly tore me apart on the spot.

“What nobody knew was that it wasn’t killing its victims right away, it was tearing them apart bit by bit, playing with them and then leaving them for days before finally putting them out of their misery and killing them.

“The thing took me back to a cave it had been using to string up its victims. It tore at me with teeth and claws and then it left, probably planning to come back for more later, but it never came back. Apparently Carter and the others finally tracked it down and killed it, but they didn’t know about me, they didn’t know that it was torturing its victims.

“I spent days tied to a wall, turning into a werewolf, slowly healing and then struggling to get loose. I have been told it was a miracle not only that I survived but also that I didn’t go mad.

“When I was finally free, I didn’t know what to do. I felt like a monster. I could feel the wolf inside of me, but the only other werewolf I had ever seen was the one who made me. I thought I could never go back home, I could never risk hurting others, and I could never kill myself. I avoided search dogs for weeks and instead of going back to my dad, I just moved to a different tract of land and starting living there, doing whatever to survive. I just spent the rest of the time working on control, stopping and starting the shift, controlling my emotions, finding my limits, and whatever else occurred to me to try.”

“I spent six months in the woods before I accidentally crossed a line into Carter’s territory and the pack tracked me down within days. I wasn’t nearly as good at hiding my scent or my trail because I had never needed to before.

“When they found me, I recognized them instantly as werewolves so I moved to attack them, tried to take them out of the world so that no more psychopaths would exist to repeat what had been done to me. It wasn’t until Carter started giving orders to his pack, as calm as you can be. They sounded so human, so normal, that if I hadn’t known what they were by instinct, I might have thought them normal. So I shifted back, stood up straight and asked Carter if he had ever tortured or killed anyone. He looked so shocked that I could control myself so easily, that I could go from nearly feral to completely human in an instant, but it was the soother in me that made me grasp at sanity so hard. He said he never hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it and he help educate me on werewolves, on more than just the crazed omega who turned me.

“Carter offered me a spot in the pack and I accepted. I found out Isaac had been the last victim before me, having been able to escape when Carter had initially tracked the omega down and distracted it before the omega got away. I took to Isaac the fastest. It took a long time to get comfortable with all of them. No human contact for six months made me skittish, and the constant access to so many emotion left me on edge. I worked hard at maintaining my control and eventually I started letting people in. I got closest with the alpha because that’s how soothers are made, our goals are closest to those of the alpha, so we instinctually know that they would be a good match for us.

“The alphas always seem to feel the same way.”

Derek wanted nothing more than to tell Stiles that it wasn’t instinct that attracted Derek to him, Stiles had been human at the time. Even if Derek had known Stiles’ potential he wouldn’t be able to sense it. Besides he had been an omega at the time, and there is no way he would have been strong enough to tell or even to care beyond the fact that Stiles cared for him and was there for him and Derek loved him for that alone.

“The relationship that developed between Carter and I seemed natural though it only became romantic in the last six months of his life. He said he was sure about us and he accepted me as his mate. He got emotional and angry and became overly obsessed with who I was with and what I smelled like. That was when I remembered you and the way you acted and suddenly it all clicked and I was sure you were a werewolf too. The glowing eyes that I had willfully ignored were just the tip of the ice burg.

“I told Carter about you, about how I thought you had mated to me, and how I couldn’t be with him if I thought there was someone else out there who I might love more, even after all this time. I packed a bag and told him I was leaving to find you, to find out what you meant to me. I thought you were probably some omega, or maybe a beta, but I would still bring you home and we could be together. I got all the way to the bus stop before it happened.

“The Associated omegas attacked and Kate Argent killed Carter. The soother’s drive to avenge an alpha’s death was overwhelming and it took me a month to track down the omega and rip out its throat, but I just couldn’t leave after that. I hated myself for not having been with him when they attacked, for not having been with him sooner, not being able to save him. I didn’t think I deserved happiness.”

Stiles sighed and then steel came into his voice. “I got my punishment in Alpha Peter. Peter had always been trouble in the pack, but he was just a beta so it wasn’t a problem. Carter was still worried and was talking about forcing him out. It wasn’t something I objected to.

“When Carter died, Peter was still in the pack. After everything happened, I held it together for two whole weeks, making sure the pack was alright, making sure they didn’t let grief consume them. Then after two weeks I couldn’t deal anymore and I left for twenty-four hours to get some space to break down. I didn’t want to do it in front of the betas; I had to stay strong for them.

“I left for twenty-four hours and when I came back, Peter had convinced them to accept him as alpha. When he came to me, he told me it was for the best of the pack that I accept him as alpha too. He had already told that pack that I approved and that that was why I had left, to give them time and space to make their own decision on an alpha without a soother affecting choice. He told me ripping away an alpha that they had accepted would hurt the pack.

 ‘Those words are like soother kryptonite and he knew it.”

Derek wanted so badly to reach forward, to wrap Stiles in his arms, but he lacked the capacity, still recovering from his injury.

“He took control and for a while we were lucky and got some peace without threats from outside forces. Then two months in, the Argent’s came back with a vengeance and we had to run. I kept suggesting we come here, hoping to find you, but Peter would never listen. It was clear he wanted me as his mate, but he knew that I was still unavailable. I think he even knew that it was someone here I was trying to find, but when we had such a close call last month, he couldn’t deny me anymore and we had to come here.

“I was horrified when the second you saw me on the street you flinched and ran away. I didn’t know what to make of it. I still don’t know what to make of it. All I know is that you care for my pack and you have been kind to them at every turn, and that I wish you were their alpha instead of Peter. I wish…”

Whatever Stiles had been about to say was cut off when the door slammed downstairs. Derek recognized Peter’s harsh orders immediately and Stiles was off the bed and out the door before Derek could do anything. Derek didn’t even have the strength to open his eyelids, so he couldn’t get up, but he could listen.

Derek was only just starting to digest everything Stiles had told him. Had he really never been terrified of him? Had it been that Derek showed him his wolf and scared Stiles because he had never shared that part of himself before?

Would Stiles have accepted the wolf if Derek had shared it with him all that time ago? Derek really didn’t know the answer to that one, but it was a little moot now.

More importantly, had Stiles really loved Derek all this time?

Derek refrained from letting all his hope reign free; he needed to remember that Stiles wasn’t actually his. Though for the first time he thought it might actually be a possible future that existed outside of his greatest fantasies.

Despite the sobering thought of their continued separation, being in separate packs, Derek gave a perfunctory tug on their mate bond, preparing himself to feel the unconnected pull from every other time he had done it in the last five years. When he tugged his end of the rope, this time the rope didn’t leave him reeling backwards from the lack of tension. This time, the rope was pulled nearly taunt by the faint connection at the other end. It wasn’t as strong as his end of the rope but it was connected, like by a string, like the rope petered out to the single string and it was holding on to Stiles.

Derek didn’t want to pull too hard, lest the string break, but it was more than had been there ever before.

“Stiles!” Derek heard the harsh order from downstairs, and his attention snapped back Peter.

“Peter.” came the response in a calm tone, entirely devoid of emotion.

Derek strained, but he couldn’t hear any of the other voices in the house, he couldn’t detect any of the other heartbeats, and he knew the packs had left, leaving only Stiles, Peter, and Derek.

The two of them had moved back up to the floor Derek was on, but had moved into the bedroom adjacent. There was only a bathroom and two doors between them, so it wasn’t as much of a strain to listen as it was to hear them downstairs.

“—Why are you doing this? Do you realize how much this threatens the pack?” Peter’s voice was filled with scorn and Derek wanted to flinch from it. He could only imagine how Stiles reacted.

“This isn’t a threat to the pack; they are bonding because they feel safe here.” Stiles responded coolly.

“That doesn’t explain why you are here! You have no place being in his house, helping his pack!” Peter shouted.

“I’m helping because they need it, they took us in, they deserve it.” Stiles’ voice was rising to match Peter’s. “They killed Kate Argent for us, avenged Carter’s death, I’m indebted to them.”

“You aren’t theirs YOU’RE MINE!” Peter roared, followed by the sickening sound of flesh hitting flesh and the sharp scent of blood.

There was a gasp and a thump that sounded like Stiles hitting the wall.

Derek tried to roar back, tried to push himself up, tried to get to Stiles to protect him, but the damn wolfsbane left him too weak to do anything. Derek’s every muscle was tightened with the tension running through him, but he couldn’t get to Stiles and it was killing him.

He heard a whimper form the other room, one that was clearly Stiles’ and Derek whined in response.

“Now you are going to do what I tell you.” Peter’s wrathful command, filled with enough alpha that it probably left Stiles shaking. Derek’s hackles rose and he tried to struggle up again before black seeped into the edge of his vision and he was forced to lie back lest he fall unconscious and leave Stiles completely alone.

“yes.” came the meek response.

“You keep your mouth shut, you stay away from the other pack, and none of the betas you think so precious get hurt.” Peter paused, “It’s for the good of the pack.” he said that last sentence like they were the magic words.

Apparently they were because Stiles couldn’t respond, he could only whine again and Peter took that as assent.

“We’re leaving.” Peter’s harsh voice was punctuated by a ruffle of clothes and another thump as Stiles bumped into the wall again.

Derek thought over the stories the betas had told him just the day before, “Stiles always said that was the worst part of being a soother, his instincts literally force him to stop anything that could hurt us, he has to stick with the pack and protect us over anything else, _no matter what_.” “He also has to do whatever the alpha tells him if they say it’s for the good of the pack.”

Derek let out a harsh growl and tried one last time to push himself up, he nearly managed to sit up but the darkness gripped him before he could get further.

He fell back against the pillows again, officially leaving Stiles alone as he lost consciousness once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Ha, Ha, Ha" the author said in a humorless tone.
> 
> Yeah so yet another cliff hanger, though this one less so, but you finally found out why Stiles didn't look at Derek at the end of chapter six!
> 
> I am well aware you all probably hate me now but.... no actually I have nothing to say for myself, I am a horrible person.
> 
> ***SPOILERS*****  
> I hate Peter and there is some serious ass kicking in the next chapter.  
> BAMF!Stiles- Let's go!


	9. Chapter Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A stare down, a pack change, some fighting, and what would appear to be a horrifying ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!  
> So I'm really sorry, I know I said I would post yesterday, but yesterday kind of got away from me. I started editing at like 11 and it needed way more work than I thought and then it was like 12:30 and I was half asleep and wasn't sure it was all sensical so rather than post it last night, I just waited til now and reread it to make sure it made sense. 
> 
> On an unrelated note, I apparently have an unhealthy enjoyment of using excessive “Yay “’s and exclamation points. I was always taught to never write with them so now I over compensate in the notes and comments. 
> 
> Thank you guys so much for commenting! I was freaking out after posting the last chapter because the whole Stiles abuse situation was so awful and I was like, “I think I warned for it, I put violence in the tags right? They won’t hate me right? I wrote abuse, they can’t say I didn’t!”   
> Then I had like seven comments and I was like AHHHH! Then I actually read them and I got really excited and happy so thank you so much! People totally underestimate the power of comments!  
> Yay for readers!  
> Also Yay for excessive use of Yay’s and exclamation points!

When Derek woke up again, he felt far stronger. The wolfsbane had completely left his system and his side was all but healed.

He pushed himself out of bed and cursed the ease with which he did it because he hadn’t been able to when it mattered.

Derek catapulted out of the bedroom and thundered downstairs, drawing the attention of the members of both packs, everyone being present except for Peter and Stiles.

“Where are they?” Derek snarled out, barely keeping himself from turning completely animal.

“Where are who?” asked Cora, moving forward and trying to placate him. Confusion registered on her face rather than worry. 

“Stiles! Stiles and Peter! Where are they?” he shouted, trying to get them to understand the urgency.

“Peter said they were going out to walk the perimeter, they left like three hours ago.” Cora responded, arms up, palms out, still trying to calm him.

“I’m going to kill him” Derek growled and tried to move to the door to leave, needing to find them.

  _Protect Stiles protect Stiles protect Stiles_ , his brain chanted.

Jackson stepped in front of him and growled, Scott and Allison moving in either side, trying to box Derek in.

 Derek’s own pack started growling, trying to protect their alpha just as the other pack was trying to protect theirs.

“We are not letting you near them.” Jackson snarled. He stood before Derek with his claws out and his fangs lengthening.

“Jackson.” Isaac called, his voice still soft, he stayed behind Derek, not moving forward in the effort to defend Peter

Jackson turned to face him, not giving up his position, but still distracted by Isaac’s call.  Jackson started to snarl before remembering that it was Isaac who was speaking. Annoyance, confusion, and a little bit of protective rage flashed across Jackson’s face, before he schooled it into a blank expression.

“What?” Jackson asked, unable to keep the growl out of his voice.

“He’s going to protect Stiles.” Isaac said simply, like that was all the information they needed.

It was more than enough for Derek.

He pushed through Jackson, who stood stunned and confused, and went out the door.

Derek sprinted across the lawn, heading into the woods, following the scent of fresh bread, spice, wolf, and mate. He shifted to full wolf and ran as fast as he could, uncaring of his own exertion, only the thought of saving Stiles.

At some point he became aware of the others following him, but he didn’t pause.

He followed the scent to the warehouse. The smell of blood and the decaying flesh of the omegas still fresh in the air nearly gagged Derek, but he kept his nose open, latching onto Stiles’ scent.

He found them standing in the center of the warehouse floor, only twenty feet from the omega bodies. Derek slowed down as he came up to them.

He stopped, leaving only a small distance of floor separating them, but Derek didn’t dare move any closer.

Peter had a grip on Stiles’ shoulder; his claws digging in deep and placed so that a swipe to the throat would be effortless. To the casual observer, the hold didn’t seem all that threatening, but Peter’s eyes burned with fire and murderous was the only adjective to describe his scent.

Derek wanted to rip out Peter’s throat and seriously considered the merits of the idea but Stiles even if Stiles survived the initial attack he would still be forced to avenge his alphas death, and while it might save Stiles, it seemed counter-productive.

“Here.” snarled Peter, commanding his betas to come to him. They came without hesitation, still unsure what was going on, but supporting their alpha.

Isaac moved to stand just behind Stiles, somehow understanding that Stiles was in danger, but it was clear that none of the betas knew that Peter had been abusing Stiles.

Derek settled into a protective stance. “Let him go.” he commanded.

“You don’t get to control me.” Peter growled, “he is mine and they are my pack, you have no right to bond with them. THEY’RE MINE.” Peter’s grip tightened on Stiles’ shoulder, claws digging further into the flesh and drawing blood.

Stiles whimpered, unable to control his flinch, and Peter turned on him. “Shut up you stupid bitch.” Peter brought his other hand up and backhanded Stiles’ across the face. Peter’s steady grip on Stiles’ shoulder kept him from falling away from Peter’s side, but it caused Peter’s nails to dig deeper, turning the corner of Stiles’ shirt red, adding to the dots in the middle, growing in number with each drop of blood that fell from Stiles’ now sliced cheek.

Derek snarled but couldn’t risk moving forward lest Peter kill Stiles.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?” sputtered the members of the pack behind Peter, moving forward to protect Stiles, possibly to attack Peter.

Peter turned his red eyes on them and they froze unable to escape from the unspoken command.

“It’s for the good of the pack.” He snarled at them, but those words didn’t have any hold over his pack members, not like they did for Stiles. They weren’t soothers, the good of the pack and the word of the alpha wasn’t the end all be all for them like it was for him.

The other pack whimpered and Derek’s pack whined in sympathy.

Derek’s wolves were lined up behind him, much like the first day the two packs met, and Derek felt as if it had come full circle.

“He’s a person, not a punching bag, Peter, you need to let him go. You are hurting your entire pack by doing this.” Derek said, trying to keep his voice calm and leech some of the anger from Peter.

“He’s mine! This is my pack! I can do what I want.” Spittle flew from Peter’s mouth as he took a slight step backward, dragging Stiles with him by the flesh of his shoulder.

Derek’s wolf snarled nastily every time Peter claimed Stiles as his, and Derek wanted rip this wolf to shreds, but he couldn’t risk Stiles’ life in the process.

Derek forced himself calm.

“He isn’t yours, Peter, he is a person in your pack, but you don’t own them.” Derek didn’t miss the irony of the statement. It was only five years ago that it had been Derek trying to claim and control Stiles just as Peter was doing now, albeit that with Derek there had been less blood.

An idea hit Derek full force, “They don’t have to stay with you.” He said.

Both packs stiffened and Stiles sagged a little.

“We’ll leave!” threatened Scott, his hand tightening around Allison’s wrist. He stepped forward, Allison trailing behind him, but following nonetheless.

“You wouldn’t dare!” snarled Peter, “you wouldn’t leave Stiles even if it killed you.”

Scott froze as did Allison and the rest of the pack. Derek knew it to be true, no matter how awful Peter was Stiles couldn’t leave the pack and the pack wouldn’t abandon him.

Peter smirked at Scott’s weakness and to punish Scott for his threat, Peter punched Scott’s already uneven jaw, sending him tumbling to the ground.

Allison leaned over Scott on the floor and whimpered with him. Derek’s pack flinched forward, wanting to run to Scott, wanting to rip apart Peter, but none of them wanted to risk Stiles.

“Don’t move!” Peter commanded to the rest of his own betas, his eyes flaring red, and the wolves behind him were frozen, unable to go forward and comfort Scott or try to make any move on Peter.

They were caught in his iron will and unable to escape it.

Peter snarled again, his face sprouting fur and teeth elongating further and further. The more animalistic he became the looser his grip was on Stiles shoulder. Peter was no longer able to curl his fingers around the ball of the joint as his hands turned into paws and he started to go through the complete shift.

Stiles straightened and twisted in Peter’s grasp, gasping when the nail dug deep before Stiles elbowed Peter in the stomach and escaped his immediate hold.

“I’m leaving.” Stiles said, calm and sincere. His back was turned to Derek but Derek could still see the fierceness of Stiles’ stance and the strength in his voice.

“No! It’s for the good of the pack you stay here.” Peter snarled. Stiles didn’t deflate or move back. “It’s for the good of the pack you listen to me!” Stiles didn’t budge. “IT’S FOR THE GOOD OF THE PACK THAT YOU SUBMIT!” Peter roared, any remaining holds on sanity being lost, Peter swung a clawed hand out, trying to grasp Stiles but Stiles simply moved a step back out of reach. 

“The good of the pack is what I say it is and while I may be subservient to the alpha, my first job is to protect the pack. Clearly my continued presence here is of no protection to them, in fact it causes them harm.” Stiles said with calm, never looking away from Peter’s heated gaze.

“You are a soother, the alpha’s word is law!” Peter growled, he face was slowly losing its more human features and turning more animal by the minute.

“I found a loophole, dickwad.” Stiles snarled back. He took a step back, away from Peter and closer to Derek.

“You beat me for the last six months and I have stayed because it was my duty, my burden as soother to stay and protect the pack from anything, to protect them from you. I kept my mouth shut because you ordered me to and because I knew it would kill them to know, and I cannot cause them pain when it is my instinct to protect them from it.” Stiles voice broke when he admitted he had been abused for months, but he drew himself up straight again. “I told you if you ever laid a hand on any of them that I would find a way to break my bonds, that I would escape you, and look! Now I’ve gone and done exactly as I always said I would. I told you, you should have put more faith in my word.”

“Your words mean nothing!” Peter howled, his featured shifting more and more, nose scrunching, hair growing, jaw jutting. “I can still feel our bond, you are still connected to me!”

“No.” Stiles said simply, “I am connected to your pack, to your betas, not to you, never to you. “

“Goodbye Peter.” Isaac said, moving away from Peter. Isaac’s face contorted for a moment as his wolf fought the pull of the alpha, but he kept going, keeping a full distance from Peter, and finally moving to stand behind Stiles.  

Derek watched Peter flinch as the pack bond that connected him and Isaac broke.  

Derek wanted to pull Isaac and Stiles behind him, to shelter than from Peter. He could see Peter’s hold on humanity breaking and he needed to shield them from it.

 He knew Stiles wasn’t done yet though, Stiles wanted to rip apart everything Peter had before he would ever consent to backing down.

Jackson used Peter’s momentary weakness as an alpha to break the his own pack tie and grabbed Danny, both of them walking over to stand on Stiles’ other side. They all stayed about a foot behind Stiles, letting him be the face of their escape.

Derek’s urge to shield them only grew as the unalphaed pack increased in size.

 With Peter momentarily incapacitated, reeling from the loss of power from losing Stiles and the other betas, Allison was able to move forward. She took Scott’s arm and literally dragged him across the floor to get behind Stiles.

Derek watched as Peter sunk lower and lower to the ground, clearly losing strength. The girth of his wolf decreased rapidly, losing size and muscle mass as his body was no longer powered by pack strength. In fact, the second Allison cut her ties with Peter, Peter howled and his eyes went from red to blue, shifting from alpha of a pack to an omega.

Stiles stood as the leader of his congregation of what were now omegas and faced down Peter. Peter’s face was now covered in fur with a hunched back and fingers gnarled like he was stuck half-way between beta form and full blown wolf.

The omegas stared down Peter. “NO! You cannot leave me!” Peter roared, his words garbled by the fangs filling his mouth. He moved to take a step forward and crumped as his man legs folded back and up, trying to become those of a wolf but being only half successful.

“Die alone as the monster you are, Fucker.” Stiles said in a voice filled with ice. Stiles turned around, not deigning Peter as even a slight threat and faced Derek instead.

“Alpha Derek, we are a group of omegas who seek—“

“Yes.” interrupted Derek.

Stiles frowned, “I wasn’t done. We seek protection and—“

“Yes.” Derek repeated.

“Shut up and let me do this right!” snapped Stiles. Derek lifted a single eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

Stiles nodded and continued, his face serious and full of worry, “We seek protection, safety, and pack. We wish you no harm, but would ask that you accept as your own. Will you accept us?”

Derek stayed silent for a moment, waiting.

“Well?” asked Stiles.

“Am I allowed to speak now?” Derek asked, lightly teasing as it was the only thing he could do to stop himself from physically jumping for joy and wrapping his arms around Stiles and never letting go.

“Yes!” Stiles huffed.

Derek smiled. “Yes, I accept you and your pack.”

“They’re not _my_ —thank you.” Stiles said, and his look of worry and seriousness disappeared. A small smile grew on his lips and he stepped closer to Derek.

When he was close enough, Derek wrapped his arms around him and pulled Stiles behind him.

Derek’s wolf reveled in the touch.

He felt a tug deep in his chest, and could feel the pack bonds forming, attaching a string from each beta to Derek, with a pack bond from Stiles to Derek as well.

With his own wolf so euphoric at the new contact, he couldn’t resist pulling at the mate bond, testing it out. This time when he pulled, it wasn’t a thin string connecting his rope to Stiles, but a braid of strings, stronger and more resilient. It wasn’t a complete mate bond, but at the moment he didn’t care.

Derek moved the entirety of his new pack behind him and turned to face Peter.

Derek stepped away from Peter, creating more distance. He thought about killing him but it was still his uncle and he was loath to part with any more of his family.

 “Leave.” he commanded, “and don’t ever come back. If you do, I will kill you without a second thought.”

With that Derek turned and herded his pack towards the doors at the other end of the warehouse. He didn’t even give Peter the benefit of being considered a threat and turned his back to him completely.

It was a massive mistake.

Peter roared before launching himself towards the pack. Derek spun around just in time to dodge the first blow and deliver a swift responding hit, but Peter wasn’t going after him.

Peter had launched himself at Stiles.

Stiles cried out as they made contact, but he half-shifted fast and put his claws through Peter’s throat before Derek could even move to protect him.

Peter choked and gurgled as the blood spurted out of the wound in his neck and then he crumpled to the floor, well and truly dead.

Stiles staggered back and Derek caught him, pulling him to his chest and pressing their bodies together. “It’s okay, you’re safe now.” Derek whispered, kissing his forehead.

“Derek?” Stiles asked, even more quiet. He pulled back and looked Derek in the eye, Derek started to smile, but then Stiles’ gaze dropped to look at the hand Stiles had pulled away from his side.

Derek stared down at the blood that wasn’t Peter’s coating his palm.

“Derek.” he said again, sad this time, like Stiles was losing something before he even had it.

Derek didn’t understand that tone.

Especially because it was Derek losing him.

Stiles crumpled forward, and Derek caught him, wrapping his arms around Stiles again, and cradling him in his arms.

All the pack members flew forward, crowding around them, tears in nearly all of their eyes.

Derek sobbed, clutching Stiles even closer, “No! No! No, you can’t die, not yet, not ever, but not now that I finally have you. Not now that you are finally here.”

“Derek?” Stiles asked, a slight gurgle contorting his voice as blood welled in his mouth, staining his teeth.

“No! No! It’s going to be fine. You are going to be fine.”

“Derek.” he said one last time, “I love you.” And then his eyes slipped shut.

Derek tugged Stiles’ body further into his arms, pressing himself to every inch of him, trying to keep him close, keep him here, and he sobbed, choking on the word “no.” which just kept slipping out of his mouth again and again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I am a horrible person and this seems like a horrible ending but there is one more chapter! Please read it if you don't want to leave this story crying into your computer screen!
> 
> The bright side is Peter is dead, right?


	10. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of outrageous homework assignments, hiding places, accidents, family, proposals, and fluff. Not to mention threats of indecency used as coercion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As an apology for not posting when I said I would yesterday I am posting the final chapter as well! Yay! Two in one day!
> 
> Here are the joyous trigger warnings for this which weren't big enough to put in the tags but I thought I would warn for them here. 
> 
> So Jackson is bi, which is something that people might react to.  
> Here are the pairings in the chapter that weren't worth tagging cause they are only mentioned in passing.  
> These are not concurrent relationships  
> Jackson/Lydia  
> Danny/Jackson  
> Danny/Ethan  
> Aiden/Lydia  
> Jackson/Aiden????

Derek stood at the kitchen counter in his house, staring at a piece of paper that made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

“How is this considered math?” he asked, staring at the four year old who had asked for help. Derek looked up at Erica, “Kyle is in kindergarten, how is this considered math for kindergarteners? There are letters here!”

Erica hid her laugh behind her hand and it became clear why she had told her son to ask Derek for help instead of helping him herself.

Derek growled and flashed his eyes at her, more to show her his annoyance than any actual anger.

Frankly, since his betas started having pups, he had a hard time fostering any sort of anger, and none he could ever think about taking out on the pack.

“Now, now there big guy,” snickered Erica, “Stiles wouldn’t approve of that now would he?”

Derek stopped the growl immediately, but he glared instead. “Shush.” he scolded. It wasn't fair to bring Stiles into this. 

“Is someone talking about me because my ears were burning.” Stiles said as he wondered down the stairs into the kitchen. He walked right into Derek’s arms and reached up to pull him into a kiss. “Hello my mate, were you being nice?” he chided, a teasing smile stretching out on his face and Derek smiled helplessly back.

“I’m always nice.” he said, slipping into a slight scowl.

Stiles laughed and patted his cheek before kissing him again.

Stiles pulled away and wondered over to Kyle who continued to work on his homework and was still struggling to understand the confounding kindergarten math.

Derek was convinced someone had given him the wrong homework. Maybe it was for a middle schooler and it was only done to mess with Derek. Actually, Derek wouldn’t put it past Erica and Boyd to give their son different homework just to annoy the alpha.

Stiles leaned over the paper briefly, “subtract this over to the other side and divide by the constant.” he said, then leaned down to kiss Kyle’s head, before straightening and moving over to the fridge.

Derek ‘s chest ached for a moment, seeing Stiles interact with a child like that. He had the sudden and overwhelming urge to start a family with him and Derek wasn’t over surprised by the instinct. Stiles turned around and looked Derek in the eye, smiling slightly as if he knew exactly what Derek was thinking.

Actually, it was possible he did know, the bond seemed to be growing stronger every day for the past five years.

Derek couldn’t be happier.

Stiles turned back around and reached up into one of the top cabinets and Derek suddenly flared with panic.

Stiles never went into that top cupboard, which is why Derek had thought it a great hiding spot for a certain item he was saving for a special moment. 

Stiles’ fingers had just grazed the casserole dish he never used, his body stretching up, lifting his shirt and revealing a ribbon of skin above his jeans. His fingers were just clutching around the side of the dish when he suddenly retracted.

Derek thought he was reacting to his own ever increasing panic, but Stiles crumpled down clutching his side and Derek knew what it was.

The casserole dish had been pulled out halfway out of the cabinet and toppled the rest of the way out, hitting the ground just after Stiles.

Derek rushed forward to get to him, completely forgetting his panic about Stiles finding the item. He crouched down beside him and hugged him close, waiting for Stiles’ tremors to die down and the pain to fade away.

Derek cursed Peter once again for having ripped through Stiles’ side, severely damaging the nerves and nearly killing him. Even five years later, if Stiles leaned or stretched just the right way, it could trigger a spasm and he would crumple in pain.

He held Stiles while he panted and after several minutes the tremors stopped and Stiles’ ragged breathing slowed down. Derek tucked his face into Stiles’ neck, breathing him in to calm his own anger at a man long since dead.

“Derek?” Stiles’ voice was filled with confusion and Derek pulled away to look at him.

“Yeah?” he asked, searching his face for signs that something else was wrong.

“What’s that?” he asked, pointing at something behind Derek on the floor.

“What’s--?” Derek’s sentence dropped off as he spotted the golden wedding band fallen loose on the floor, sitting in the middle of the remains of the casserole dish.

“You kept looking for things in my drawers,” Derek explained, thinking of the times Stiles would go for one of Derek’s t-shirts or his loose sweatpants, and Derek’s never ending fear Stiles would find the small velvet box that was all that he had left of his father. “I thought you would never find it in the casserole dish. You hate casserole.”

“Lydia asked for casserole for dinner tonight.” Stiles said, still staring at the ring lying on the floor, and Derek tore his gaze away from it to look at Stiles.

He wouldn’t put it past Lydia to instigate this so Stiles would find the ring, but he had been trying so hard to keep it a secret from everyone until he found the perfect moment. Sure it had been three years since he took it out of his safety deposit box, but he thought the perfect moment would come any day now.

It looks like he missed his chance.

“I--,” he tried to start, reaching forward and picking up the ring from the ceramic. “I—wasn’t sure when I was going to propose, I was waiting for the perfect moment, and while I didn’t have a plan, my various versions of this were a lot better.”

Stiles laughed and it sounded the slightest bit hysterical. “How long have you had this?”

“While it was my father’s so forever, or since he died.” Stiles gave him a look and Derek knew that that wasn’t what Stiles meant when he asked. Derek started to clam up, embarrassed by how long he had been chickening out. 

“Derek,” Stiles said, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to Derek’s, and Derek pressed back just as eagerly.

Stiles pulled back and raised his eyebrows, still waiting for an answer.

“I’ve had the ring in the house for about three years now, but things were always happening, and it didn’t seem right. Erica and Boyd got married. Allison and Scott got engaged, and then broke up, then got engaged again, then they finally got married. And then there were babies. And we were all stressed and I kept waiting for the perfect moment, but---“ Derek cut himself off again. He looked down at Stiles and Stiles looked back at Derek.

Stiles’ face was open and kind and Derek wanted to tell him everything. “I didn’t want you to think it was too soon, that I was pushing you, that I was trying to control you.”

“Derek, you couldn’t control me if you tried.” That was a lie, but what he meant was that Derek wouldn’t.  “And we have been together five years, I don’t think that is ‘too soon’ by any stretch of the imagination.” Stiles put on a mock frown but his lip kept curling up.

“Those first two years don’t really count: you were recovering from the wound and we were dealing with those last two hunters, and then we both knew you need time to recover from Peter’s abuse. “ Stiles flinched and Derek flinched in sympathy, they didn’t say Peter’s name often for the obvious reasons. “Then the third year we were getting into a comfortable pattern, really figuring things out, and I didn’t think I should propose then, we needed time to get comfortable. And then…”

Derek stopped talking and looked down at Stiles. They were both still sitting on the floor, nearly curled up with each other, surrounded by ceramic shards, and Derek was holding a wedding band.

“Stiles?” he asked, looking into his eyes for the slightest sign that this wouldn’t make him happy. All he found was fierce joy. “Will you marry me?” he asked.

Stiles face broke out into a massive grin. “Yes! Yes!” he rolled forward and wrapped his arms around Derek, squeezing him tight. He pulled back and kissed him, pressing his entire body into him. “Yes.” he whispered into Derek’s lips.

It took several more minutes for them to separate before Derek could put the ring on his finger. When he looked at it, Stiles sighed, a grin plastered across his face and he leaned in for another kiss. Neither of them were able to stop smiling into it.

When they pulled back for air, Stiles rested his forehead against Derek’s. “Derek Hale, I have loved you for thirteen years and I will love you for a hundred more. I would do anything to keep us together forever. Thank God you proposed now because if you waited another six months I was going to do it for you.”

Derek pulled back and smiled before standing up and pulling Stiles with him, careful to keep Stiles’ bare feet away from the ceramic shards. He heard the rest of the pack members cheering outside, where they were all apparently listening to the proposal, and he briefly wondered at what point Erica and Kyle had abandoned the room.

Most likely right after the ceramic casserole dish fell.

Derek smiled again at Stiles who was also listening to the cheering outside and a thought struck Derek. “Thirteen years? I proposed after thirteen years together? Isn’t that really bad luck?” Derek wasn’t normally a superstitious person, but they seriously couldn’t afford any more bad luck.

“Shush.” Stiles responded with authority. Then he leaned forward to kiss him again. “It’s not bad luck, I’m luckiest person in the world.” he whispered into Derek’s lips.

Derek disagreed, he was pretty positive of one thing: Derek was the luckiest person in the world.

He got Stiles.

“Besides, it only counts as like eight because we were broken up for those five years in the middle.” Stiles said, wrapping his arms around Derek again.

“I don’t count it as a break up if we got back together again. We were on a break.” Derek said. He hated thinking about the time they were apart, it made him possessive of the time he had with Stiles now. Not that Stiles was against that to a certain extent.

“We are not Ross and Rachel. Do not turn us into Ross and Rachel.”

“Stiles, our situation is totally different than theirs, that doesn’t even correlate.” Derek said, rolling his eyes but tucking his nose under Stiles’ chin.

“Hey, you slept with Kayla during our ‘break.’” Stiles snarked, but Derek could still hear the hurt in the tone.

“Yeah, four and a half years after we broke up. How long was it before you were with someone else?” Derek asked, but now hurt was starting to seep into his own voice. He never thought about who Stiles was with in their time apart, he knew about Carter but that was it. How long after their initial break up had Stiles waited before sleeping with someone else?

“Hey, I waited four years too, so I think we are about even.” Stiles said, but he gripped Derek harder. “I think we are ruining my beautiful moment after being proposed to.” Stiles said, moving to press his own nose into Derek’s neck before pressing a kiss behind Derek’s ear.

“I’m sorry.” Derek said, starting to trail kisses along Stiles’ jaw and nipping slightly at the moles that dotted the one side.

Stiles’ hands started to roam across Derek’s back and slipped lower, reaching for Derek’s ass.

“Oh my God, my eyes!” shouted Scott from where he and the rest of the pack had moved to stand in the doorway.

“Oh my God, Scott, really?” shouted Stiles, turning to face the beta. Derek stepped away from Stiles, slightly chagrinned. If he thought it would do any good he would tell the betas to get out of the kitchen, but anything short of the alpha voice and they would refuse.

Stiles was still a little jumpy around the alpha voice so Derek tried to not use it except in the most dire of circumstances. He wasn’t sure blue balls counted, but he thought he could make a case.

Lydia marched to the front of the huddle of betas in the doorway and glared at Derek and Stiles. “One, you have me to thank for you _finally_ proposing, so now you need to spend some time with us. Two, if you refuse, we will all follow you around the house, with Kyle, and we know Stiles wouldn’t be able to scar the kid that badly. Three, if you two so much as think of having sex in the kitchen, I will do something intensely horrifying like start some orgy in your bed and you two will never be able to sleep there again without the images of all of us naked and having sex there.”

Derek and Stiles both flinched and curled their lips in disgust because the betas were like their kids and they just couldn’t live with visuals like that plaguing them for the rest of their lives.

Heh. Rest of their lives. Derek was going to be with Stiles for the rest of his life.

Sure they were mated, but this felt so much more powerful to see the golden wedding ring on Stiles’ finger. It was one thing to be bonded and another to be married. Derek finally got to brag about his perfect husband and not just his boyfriend who he happened to be mated to.

Humans tended not to understand too well when he mentioned his boyfriend and him were so serious they mated.

Some men didn’t seem to realize that mated meant it wasn’t okay to keep hitting on Stiles long after Stiles said he had a boyfriend.

They better not keep doing that when Stiles said he had a husband.

A husband.

Stiles was going to be his husband.

Glee hit Derek all over again and he grabbed Stiles again, curling his arm possessively around Stiles’ waist and kissing him passionately. Stiles melted into the kiss immediately.

“Ew. It’s like watching my parents kiss.” Jackson said with a frown on his face, but it wasn’t hard to see he was secretly pleased they were happy.

“Shut up, dude, it’s nice.” Danny said, scowling at Jackson and elbowing him in the gut.

“Yeah, Jackson, shut up.” Aiden punched Jackson on the back of the shoulder, rather unnecessarily and Derek wondered about Stiles’ current theory.

Jackson had dated Danny on and off for years and he had also dated Lydia for a brief stint before her controlling tendencies became too much for him and they broke up. Stiles had a theory that since Danny and Ethan had proven to be such a strong couple, leaving Danny unavailable, Jackson may have developed an interest in Aiden. Aiden, who had also dated Lydia in the past and broken up with her for the same reasons, and Stiles believed the two would make a good couple.

Stiles was convinced Aiden and Jackson would end up together sooner or later and Derek had vehemently disagreed because he was convinced that Aiden was straight. Stiles just gave him a look and reminded him that Aiden and Ethan were identical twins and if Ethan had the pension for dating both sexes, Aiden could too.

“That’s not how that works, Stiles, Ethan only dated that girl for a short time.” Derek had said.

“But he was still turned on by her! If Ethan could be bi than so could Aiden. Have you seen how Aiden and Jackson fight? Have you noticed the unnecessary touching? Sure, they might be hitting each other but for those two it’s practically foreplay!” Stiles had said.

“Whatever, Stiles, I guess we will find out.” Derek had said, shaking his head at the ludicrous idea.

“Yes, we will, and I will be right, and you will have to bow to the ground at my feet for my awesomeness.” Stiles smirked, so sure of himself.

“I think I can find better things for me to worship.” Derek said with equal smirking.

Stiles skin had flushed red and now Derek was flushing at the memory.

Why weren’t they doing that now?

Oh yeah, because his stupid pack wanted to spend time with them instead of letting him re-explore every inch of the man who was about to be his husband.

Heh. Husband.

Erica strutted forward, poking Stiles in the side before slinging an arm over Ethan and whispering none to quietly, “Hey, when are you going to propose to certain young wolf?” she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at Danny, and Ethan flushed red. Derek scrunched his eyebrows and was a little annoyed that she had brought it up only minutes after Derek proposed.

Couldn’t they wait until tomorrow?

Derek had no idea how the two of them became friends, especially with how much Erica and his twin, Aiden, fought, but Derek was just happy the two packs meshed as well as they did.

Isaac sidled up to Boyd and started playing with Kyle whom Boyd was holding. Stiles still claimed it was Kyle that cemented the pack together, made them whole. It had felt more like a family for Derek and Cora who had lost theirs and had made things more permenant, more stable for Stiles’ pack who had had a hard time accepting that they were settled for good with no more running.

Isaac was healed the most. He spent more time with Kyle and Boyd than any of the others besides Stiles. Isaac had needed the strength of Erica’s husband to feel safe and the act of helping care for the fragile child to become stronger and more comfortable.

Isaac still came to Stiles more often than not, needing the help of the soother to calm him when he was plagued with nightmares of his werewolf sire. It always forced Derek to remember how exactly Isaac became a werewolf in the first place.

Nearly the same way as Stiles.

Derek wrapped his arm tighter around Stiles’ waist and turned to face his betas who were now spread out in the kitchen.

Stiles was turned to study Scott and Allison who were over by the kitchen table. Allison was sitting down in a chair and Scott was hovering around her awkwardly, like he wanted to do something for her but wasn’t sure what.

Something was off about Allison: she was smiling at Scott’s behavior and not nearly as annoyed as she would normally be. She was practically glowing.

Stiles turned to Derek and his grin was almost manic. Derek frowned not connecting the dots at first but when he did he was almost angry.

This was his and Stiles’ day, Scott and Allison shouldn’t be pregnant when he and Stiles just got engaged. It was bad enough Erica had mentioned Ethan and Danny’s engagement.

Stiles didn’t seem to feel any of this tension. He started bouncing in place and his grin was reaching lunatic levels.

Stiles caught Scott’s eye and Stiles asked the silent question, which Scott affirmed with a nod of his head.

Stiles broke out into a gleeful laugh and sprinted over to Scott, jumping up and down with him before leaning over and hugging Allison who was laughing too.

Derek frowned a little bit. He was happy for them, but goddammit this was _Stiles and Derek’s_ day.

Stiles ran back and grabbed Derek’s hands, still jumping up and down.

“Oh my God this is the best day ever!” he cackled, and Derek felt his enthusiasm catching. Derek smiled and Stiles leaped into his arms, wrapping himself around Derek and kissing him.

“Oh my God,” Stiles said, turning to Danny, “Now would be a perfect time to do what you were planning on doing because that would seriously top the cake on this day.”

Danny’s face contorted into a nervous smile, “that didn’t even make sense Stiles.”

“Shut up, I’m ridiculously happy. Be the top of my cake day, come on!”

Derek looked at Stiles in confusion, completely lost as to what he was on about.

Danny smiled and then dashed out of the room. Stiles happiness only increased in enthusiasm when Danny left and Ethan followed behind in confusion.

“Hey Lydia,” Stiles said, turning to her. “I heard about the good news.”

“What good news?” she asked, looking at Stiles, her own smile of happiness for the others fading into confusion.

“About getting the position at the university in the math department.” Stiles said, filled with smug joy.

“What?” she screeched and then Stiles jogged forward and started jumping up and down with her. Lydia had been hoping to get her dream job at the fantastic university nearby for months. Evidently she had. “When did you find out? How did you find out?” she asked.

“They called yesterday and I took the message. I thought I would save the good news for this morning because you got in so late last night.”

“Oh my God!” she screeched again and the two of them continued jumping.

“Guys, guys, shut up, it’s happening.” Erica whispered, flapping her hands at them.

Everyone went silent so they could listen to what was happening in the other room.

“When I came here, I was part of a broken family, desperate to find something stable, somewhere safe. Then I found this pack. Then I found you.”

Danny’s voice filtered through the walls from where he and Ethan were in the family room.

“I have loved you since almost the moment I met you, but I didn’t want to do anything at first because of how much that scared me. I was still terrified it might all being taken away. This whole pack seemed too perfect and I didn’t think it would last. It took me a long time to be sure it was permanent, but now I want to make it as permanent as I possibly can. Ethan, will you marry me?”

The entire pack was silent as they waited for Ethan’s response.

There wasn’t any.

After a moment Derek heard the telltale sound of a zipper coming undone and Derek was acutely aware that Ethan must have agreed.

Stiles broke out in near hysterical giggles and Derek found himself unable to stop his own in response.

Soon the entire pack had burst out laughing and none of them had the heart to go tell off Danny and Ethan for having sex in the living room. No doubt they would be catching hell for it in weeks to come though.

Derek wrapped his arms around Stiles again, wanting to be as close as possible, but now slightly sad that everyone else’s news had taken away his thunder.

Derek looked down at Stiles’ face to share his condolences at their own interruption, but all he saw was Stiles’ fierce joy.

Stiles was playing with the golden band on his finger and Derek couldn’t help smiling more.

“This is the best day ever.” Stiles whispered and kissed Derek.

Stiles pulled away slightly and grabbed Derek’s hand in his own and pressed it to the spot of Stiles’ heart.

Stiles pulled the mate bond slightly and opened it so that Derek could feel everything that Stiles was feeling.

Derek couldn’t contain his gasp.

Inside Stiles was every emotion of all the pack members. Every single member’s individual happiness amplified by the happiness of the others for them and finally by the happiness of Stiles himself. Stiles was practically vibrating with all the emotions of all the other pack members.

Instead of just feeling the happiness of the others for Derek and Stiles, Stiles also got to feel their own happiness for themselves. That practically sent Stiles over the edge, running on the high of so much joy.

Derek now understood why Stiles was so eager to amplify everyone’s good moods with their own joyous news.

Derek pulled Stiles to him one more time and started to kiss him fiercely.

He always forgot how connected Stiles was to his pack and Derek found himself loving Stiles more for it. Eventually the kisses became more heated and more passionate and a little more sloppy and Derek was made aware of who else was in the room. Kyle being the most impressionable.

Derek picked Stiles up and threw him over his shoulder and started walking up the stairs, followed closely by the cat calls of the rest of the pack.

When he got to it, Derek kicked shut the bedroom door behind them and threw Stiles on the bed.

The sudden movement of Stiles sent a blast of his scent to Derek’s nose. Fresh bread, spice, wolf, and mate, but the strongest scent of all was the one that surprised Derek most.

The normal calm that clung to Stiles’ skin was gone and in its place wasn’t contentment, as Derek had smelled many times before. It was happiness, exuberant, uncontrollable happiness.

In that moment Derek’s own scent matched almost identically. He smiled and laid on top of him, covering every inch of Stiles with his own body.

He kissed Stiles and he put everything he ever had into it. He let his lips drag across Stiles’ face, along his cheekbones, trailing his jaw, dipping down to his throat, letting each touch speak for each moment of joy Stiles brought him.

Stiles’ hands ran across Derek’s shoulders, along his back, pressing closer than was possible.

Derek sunk his teeth into Stiles’ shoulder, the muscle that connected the neck to the torso, covering the mark he left there four years ago, when they had finally completed their mating ritual, and Stiles did the same to Derek.

Derek opened the mate bond, wanting to feel everything Stiles felt. The passion, the happiness, and the love amplified with every movement, every touch, and Derek moaned in response.

He decided he was going to take Stiles apart, piece by piece, to take his time.

Now they had all the time in the world.

Derek gripped Stiles’ hand and stared at the golden ring on Stiles’ finger.

They were going to have forever. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bam! Let me just throw every nice thing I could possibly give to you all in four thousand words.  
> This was basically just a conglomeration of everything I though could have gone on between the pack members but didn't have enough time to expand upon them. 
> 
> So YAY I finished! But now I begin upon my next fic. I have some ideas of what I am planning on writing, but I don't have a preference for which one I write first. I thought I would list the summaries here and if anyone has a preference than they can just comment below! I will eventually write them all, it is just a matter of which I start now.  
> Equally if no one cares than no one cares.
> 
> 1) Derek is the head butler and Stiles is the head maid (he prefers cleaning personnel) and they both work for the Whittmore-Martin (name pending) family (Lydia and Jackson are siblings). Derek and Stiles constantly argue and each is completely convinced the other is incapable of doing their job. No one mistakes it for sexual tension until a visiting Duke takes an interest in Stiles, and Derek finds himself with some irrational jealousy. (Victorian time sort of?)
> 
> 2) Some bastardizations of some Greek/Roman myths (I just took a class and when I say bastardization I mean bastardization) including but not limited to Ganymede, Pygmalion/Prometheus, Omphale and Hercules, Narcissus (this one is really rewritten), and Apollo and Hyacinth
> 
> 3) This one is based on a dream I had where I combined the hunger games, poison study (great book, everyone should read it), and Fable II. (In a fable II type world) Basically Stiles was a prisoner (for disobeying the king and trying to get recompense for his mother's death) and he is given an option (with the other prisoners) to go find this item (a golden acorn? I'm not sure yet) which will save the kingdom. The prisoner that finds it get to be free and can marry the prince. Everyone else dies. (they have a magic tattoo that tracts their location and will kill them when the winning prisoner returns. (they can kill off other prisoners to better their chances thus the hunger games connection) Stiles and his free little brother Scott go off to find it because it is Stiles' best chance to care for Scott, but Stiles gets injured and the Hale family finds them and Scott stays with the Hale's while Stiles and Derek go off to look for the item. They fall in love but Stiles dies if he doesn't get the item, and if he does he is engaged to the prince so....
> 
> Damn these are some long notes.  
> I hope you enjoyed the story and I hope you might like to read more of my stuff!  
> Thank you!


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